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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



ELEMENTS 



OF 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT 



PREPARED FOR 



THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF PENNSYLVANIA 



BY 
GEORGE I. WRIGHT, Ph.D., 



Superintendent of Schools of Crawford County, Pe 



MEADVILLE, PA. : 
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR 







5\ 
S 



Copyright, 1893, 
By George I. Wright. 



Printed and bound by Flood & Vincent, 
The Chautauqua-Century Press, Meudville, Pa., U. S. A. 



PREFACE. 

The need for some elementary instruction in our 
common schools, on the duties and responsibilities 
of citizenship, has long impressed me as of much 
importance ; and in looking over the field to see if 
some logical, and at the same time elementary, 
guide could be found, I have failed to find what I 
wanted. As a school man, interested more particu- 
larly in the great body of common schools, the 
schools which educate the masses, I feel that an 
effort is warranted to simplify, and adapt to the uses 
of such schools, the explanation of those principles 
of government which should be known to every 
intelligent citizen. It seems to me that the logical 
method would be to begin at home, with the lowl}^ 
official duties which touch the local government of 
communities. Hence this effort to furnish to my 
teachers some guide to help them to follow out in- 
structions along this line. This is my only excuse 
for the publication of the following pages. 

I have made free to use what I needed, from any 
source, and I here take pleasure in acknowledging 
my indebtedness to all from whom such aid was 
obtained. 

G. I. Wright. 
Meadville, Pa., December /, i8gj. 



CONTENTS. 

PART I.— GENERAL PRINCIPLES. 

CHAPTER. PAGE. 

I. Civil Society 9 

II. Governments .... 11 

III. Rights 12 

IV. Liberty 14 

PART II —TOWNSHIPS AND TOWNSHIP 
AFFAIRS. 
V. General Remarks .... 16 
VI. School Districts ... 17 

VII. School Directors ... 18 

VIII. Local and Township Elections 19 

IX. Township Officers— Justices of 
the Peace — Constable— Audit- 
ors— Assessor . . . . 21 
X. Township Officers (Con.)— Col- 
lector— Judge of Elections — 
Inspectors of Election — 
School Directors 22 

XI. Township Officers (Con.)— Town- 
ship Clerk — Treasurer— Over- 
seers of the Poor — Path - 

MASTERS 24 

XII. Villages, Towns and Cities . 2j 

PART III.— COUNTY AND COUNTY AFFAIRS. 

XIII. Historical 30 



vi 



CONTENTS. 



XIV. County Ejections ... 32 

XV. County Courts—Common Pleas 
Court-Orphans' Court— Court 
of Quarter Sessions of the 
Peace — Court of Oyer and 
Terminer and General Jail 
Delivery — License Court . 33 

XVI. County Officers — Sheriff— 
County Coroner — County 

Surveyor 35 

XVII. County Officers (Con.)— District 
Attorney— Clerk of Courts— 
Prothonotary — Register of 
Wills — Recorder of Deeds — 
County Commissioners . . 37 
XVIII. County Officers (Con.)— County 
Treasurer — Auditors — Jury 
Commissioners — Poor Direct- 
ors — County Superintendent 
of Schools 39 

PART IV.— THE STATE. 

XIX. Historical . . . . , 42 
XX. The Legislature ... 43 

XXI . Executive Officers— Governor- 
Lieutenant- Governor — State 
Treasurer — Auditor General 
Secretary of Internal Af- 
fairs , ... . , . 44 
XXII. Executive Officers (Con.)— 
Secretary of the Common- 
wealth — Attorney General — 
Superintendent of Public In- 
struction — Adjutant General 
— Insurance Commissioner . 46 



CONTENTS. 



vii 



XXIII. The State Judiciary . . 48 

PART V.— THE NATION. 

XXIV. Historical 50 

XXV. Legislative Department . 52 

XXVI. Legislative Department (Con.) 53 
XXVII. Executive Department— Presi- 
dent 55 

XXVIII, Executive Department (Con.)— 
Vice-President — Secretary of 
State-Secretary of the Treas- 
ury — Secretary of War — 
Secretary of Navy — Secre- 
tary of the Interior — Post- 
master General — Attorney- 
General — Secretary of Agri- 
culture 57 

XXIX. Judicial Department . . 59 

XXX. The Nation . . . . 61 
Declaration of Independence. . . 66 

Articles of Confederation ... 72 
Part of the Ordinance of 1787 . . 84 

Constitution of the United States . 88 
Constitution of Pennsylvania . . no 

Appendix 159 



ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 



PART I. 

GENERAL PRINCIPLES. 

CHAPTEE I. 

Civil Society. 

Men cannot exist and reach the highest develop- 
ment, either as individuals or as a race, unless they 
associate themselves together. They are fitted 
naturally to associate with each other, each being 
dependent for many things on his fellow-men. The 
solitary state is impossible. Should we consider 
the family as the unit, it would still be impossible 
to get along without some sort of arrangement by 
which people could help one another. Hence, men 
live together in a social state, which is called civil 
society. 

Men are not always just to one another. Some are 
disposed to do things which would defraud or injure 
those with whom they are associated. Some would 
steal or, perhaps, murder, others would do all man- 
ner of wrong, so that civil society itself could not 
exist without some rules of action laid down for 



IO ELEMENTS OF CIVII, GOVERNMENT. 

the guidance of men in their social relations. Such 
rules are called laws. Laws, to be of any use, must 
have some power back of them to enforce them. 
Hence the necessity for some form of government. 

The State, which is but another name for civil 
society, cannot exist for any length of time without 
government. Occasionally, when, from one cause or 
another, people become turbulent and overturn the 
existing government, and fail for a time to substitute 
another in its place, we have social disorder, or what 
is known as anarchy. But society, or the state, for 
the protection of its individual members, soon erects 
among the ruins of the discarded government, some 
new and often better form of government. Govern- 
ment, then, is necessary to make and enforce the 
rules of action, or laws, by which men are compelled 
to be just to one another. 

The power resides in the state, that is, in the peo- 
ple considered collectively, and not in the govern- 
ment, which is but the agent of society, for securing 
to all men justice. All laws should be just laws, 
since justice is the fundamental idea on which the 
state, or civil society, was organized. Since society 
gives to government all its powers, these powers 
should be used for the benefit of the people. Govern- 
ment, then, is constituted for the purpose of protect- 
ing society and securing to the individual members 
thereof that liberty or freedom which is in harmony 
with the principle of justice which underlies the 
whole scheme. 



GENERAL PRINCIPLES. II 

CHAPTEE II. 

GOYEEXMEXTS. 

Governments are of various kinds, and that is 
best which, under all conditions, is best adapted to 
secure the ends for which it is established, that is, 
equal rights and justice to all men. The form which 
would best suit the conditions and circumstances 
under which civil society was organized in one sec- 
tion, might not be the best under other and different 
conditions. Hence we have the absolute monarchy 
in one place, under one set of conditions, and the 
limited monarchy in another place and under a differ- 
ent set of conditions, and a republic under still differ- 
ent conditions. The common forms are : monarchy, 
aristocracy, and democracy. 

Monarchies are either absolute or limited. A gov- 
ernment in which society has placed all the power in 
the hands of one person, is called an absolute mon- 
archy. One in which the power of the ruler is lim- 
ited by laws, or by a constitution, or by any other 
power, is called a limited monarchy. All monarchies 
at present in existence are hereditary, that is, the 
nearest heir succeeds to the crown. In elective mon- 
archies, the successor was elected by the people or 
their representatives whenever the monarch died. 
None such at present exists, and this fact may be 
said to prove that the elective form was less desirable 
than the hereditary. 

In an aristocracy the power is exercised by a few 



12 ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

persons, distinguished either for their rank or their 
wealth. At present, this form of government does 
not exist, though the principle is found in such 
bodies as the House of Lords in the British govern- 
ment. 

Democracy is government by the people. Pure 
democracy is not possible, except in small communi- 
ties, where it is possible for all the people to assem- 
ble. Hence, at present, there are none. 

The republic is the nearest approach to pure dem- 
ocracy at present possible. In this form of govern- 
ment, the power to make and execute laws for society 
rests in representatives elected by the people. In 
such a government the people not only say who shall 
act for them, but they adopt a code of general laws 
called a constitution, which is superior to all other 
laws, and under which their representatives must 
act. 



CHAPTER III. 

Eights. 

The individual members of society have certain 
rights which are called natural or civil rights ; nat- 
ural, because given by nature ; civil, because they 
relate to the duties of all citizens. These are the 
right to security in life, health and reputation, the 
right to go where they choose, the right to acquire 
and enjoy property, the right to protection of gov- 



GENERAL PRINCIPLES. 13 

ernment, and the right to family relations of hus- 
band and wife, parent and child, etc. 

Then there are political rights, but all people com- 
posing civil socjety do not possess them. In an ab- 
solute monarchy, society relinquishes all the politi- 
cal rights of its individual members, such as the 
right to have a voice in the government or in the se- 
lection of the rulers. In all other forms of govern- 
ment that exist to-day, the people have some politi- 
cal rights. The right to vote is a political right, 
though some think it should be a natural right, " an 
attribute of humanity ,' ' in which case women and 
children would have the same right to this privilege 
that men have. Many think that the right to vote 
on all subjects which concern society, should be 
given to all people who are subject to law, without 
regard to sex or condition. But, since the state is 
under obligation to give its people the best possible 
form of government, it is under obligations to use 
the means considered best adapted to secure the 
end sought, and if, under all circumstances, a re- 
stricted suffrage will give the best rulers and law- 
makers, then the right to vote should be restricted to 
those most competent to give to society such rulers 
and such lawmakers. But if universal suffrage is 
most likely to secure the desired end, then all people 
who are subject to law and are of sound and mature 
mind should be allowed to have a voice in choosing 
those officers who are to rule over them. The ten- 
dency during the past ages has been to extend this 



14 ELEMENTS OF CIVII, GOVERNMENT. 

privilege first to one class of citizens, then to an- 
other, until now, in many places, all men, without 
regard to rank or condition, as well as women, are 
given a voice in public affairs. If this extension of 
the political rights of the citizen proves satisfactory 
where it is tried, there is no reason why it should 
not be extended everywhere. 



CHAPTEE IY. 

Liberty. 

Liberty is the freedom to exercise and enjoy our 
rights. " Liberty is the result of law, — not as some 
suppose, of the absence of law. Many think 
that people are free only as they are without re- 
straint, and feel that in so far as they are under law 
they are without liberty." Such is not the case, 
however, since law is designed to give to all people 
security, protection, and all the liberty they can law- 
fully claim. People have no right to murder, or to 
steal, or to do wrong ; hence laws which forbid these 
things do not abridge their liberty. People have no 
right to do things which are contrary to the best 
interests and to the welfare of society. Dr. Alden 
says: " A perfectly just and wise system of laws 
would forbid everything that is unjust in society, 
everything socially wrong, and would permit every- 
thing just in society, everything socially right. If 
such a system were carried into perfect execution, it 



GENERAL PRINCIPLES. 15 

would furnish perfect security against wrong, and 
perfect liberty to do right. The perfection of law 
and execution would secure the perfection of lib- 
erty.' ' "Security against wrong, and not the tran- 
sient absence of wrong, is the essential of liberty.' * 



PART II. 

TOWNSHIPS AND TOWNSHIP AFFAIRS. 

CHAPTEE Y. 

General Eemarks. 

"The American citizen lives under not less than 
five institutions called governments. He is a mem- 
ber of a school district. He is a member of a civil 
township, a town, or city government. He is a part 
of a county government. He is ruled over by a 
State government. He is also under a federal, gen- 
eral, or national government." — Macy. " Each per- 
forms separate, special work, for the good of the 
people, and all are more or less closely connected 
with one another." 

In these United States, the State represents organ- 
ized civil society, as the governmental unit. The 
federal government exercises certain powers, which 
have been given up to it by the States; powers which 
concern the welfare of all the citizens of the entire 
country. The minor divisions of the State — school 
district, township, and county, — exercise only such 
powers as are permitted by the State, and in all 
things are governed by laws enacted by the State 
legislature. 

16 



TOWNSHIPS AND TOWNSHIP AFFAIRS. I J 

The township, as here used, means the local divi- 
sion of the county. In some States it is called town, 
as in New England, in others parish, as in some of 
the Southern States, but in most States it is called 
township. Wherever the government system of land 
survey has been followed it is six miles square, and 
is divided into squares, with roads regularly laid out. 
In Pennsylvania they are irregular in size and shape 
and were arbitrarily laid out for the convenience of 
the electors in getting to a prescribed voting place. 
Boundaries are usually determined either by streams, 
which at times might be impassable, or by the ir- 
regular roads which were made from settlement to 
settlement or from farm to farm, by the early settlers. 



CHAPTEE VI. 

School Districts. 

School districts, as here used, are the areas un- 
der separate local school governments. In some 
States each school has a separate local government, 
as in Ohio. In other States the several schools of a 
township constitute a school district. 

In Pennsylvania the township or boro is the gen- 
eral school area, except where special areas are al- 
lowed, as independent districts, where the people 
want, and are willing to pay for, better school privi- 
leges than are afforded by the general township 
board. In these cases, boundaries are established 



l8 ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

by order of court, and a separate government allowed. 

In 1787 Congress passed an ordinance by which, in 
the territory west of Pennsylvania and north of the 
Ohio River, including all land ceded to the general 
government by the several States or colonies, and all 
that should thereafter come into the possession of 
the United States, every sixteenth section of land 
should be sold for the benefit of the schools. This 
gave a fund which, in nearly all of the Western 
States helps to support the public schools. 

In the Western States, where the country is laid 
out in sections, a schoolhouse is usually located 
every two miles on alternate roads, in the center of 
each four sections, so that no child ever has more 
than two miles to walk, which is considered as far 
as any one should be required to go. 

Whatever form of local school government is 
adopted, the single school system, the mixed system, 
or the township system, the work done by the local 
board is nearly the same. 



OHAPTEE VII. 

School Directors. 

School directors are township or boro officers 
to whom are committed the educational interests of 
the district. In Pennsylvania the board consists of 
six members (except in cities), one third of whom 
are elected annually, making the term of office three 



TOWNSHIPS AND TOWNSHIP AFFAIRS. 19 

years. The school year begins on the first Monday 
of June, when the old board settles its affairs, makes 
its reports, and adjourns ; then the new board or- 
ganizes, newly elected men are sworn in and officers 
elected, which are president, secretary, and treasurer. 
School directors are not paid officers, except that the 
secretary and treasurer may be paid for their special 
services. Their duty is to make the tax levy (which 
in some States is done by a county board, in others by 
a vote of the citizens), repair and build houses as 
it becomes necessary, fix the length of the school 
term, the wages of teachers, hire teachers, procure 
supplies (including text-books), and do all other 
things necessary to the best interests of the schools. 
The funds for the support of the schools in Pennsyl- 
vania are received from two sources : a local tax, 
varying from one half a mill to 26 mills (13 mills for 
school purposes and 13 mills for building purposes), 
and an appropriation from State funds, of not less 
than one million dollars, which the State Constitu- 
tion orders, and which may be increased at the dis- 
cretion of the State legislature, but cannot be dimin- 
ished. At present (1893) it is five million dollars, five 
and a half million dollars for the years 1894 and 1895. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Local ok Township Elections. 

Local elections are usually held in the spring of 
each year, the time varying in different States . In 



20 ELEMENTS OP CIVII, GOVERNMENT. 

Pennsylvania these elections are held on the third 
Tuesday of February. On the morning of this day 
the election officers open the polls, or voting places, 
and are ready to receive the votes of the qualified 
electors. In most States what is known as the Aus- 
tralian Ballot System, or some modification of it, 
is now used. 

This system is designed to give a certain degree of 
privacy to the voter while he is making up his 
ballot, the printed form of which is furnished by the 
proper authorities. 

The election house or booth is divided into stalls 
with a shelf on which to write, and a pencil for 
marking the ballot. The voters take their places in 
the stalls and mark the ballots as they wish to vote 
them, free from the surveillance or watching of 
interested parties. It is believed that this system 
tends to purify the elections from the influence of 
men and money, since people are not so apt to pay 
money for votes when they have no way of seeing 
that they get what they pay for. The venal and un- 
lawful use of money had become so common that 
elections were often carried by this means, and men, 
no matter how competent, who had not money to pay 
for the votes, had no chance of being chosen. This 
state of affairs led to the adoption of this system of 
voting in nearly all the States of the Union. It is used 
in township, county, State, and national elections. 
In Pennsylvania the law is known as the " Baker 
Ballot Law,' ' a modification of the Australian system. 



TOWNSHIPS AND TOWNSHIP AFFAIRS. 21 

CHAPTEE IX. 

Towxship Officees. 

The officers chosen at the township election are : 
Two justices of the peace, one constable, three 
auditors, one assessor, one collector, one judge of 
elections, two inspectors of elections, six school di- 
rectors, three supervisors, one clerk, and one treas- 
urer. 

Justices of the Peace are chosen for five years. 
They preside over justice courts, which are the low- 
est courts in the land, and the ones on which all 
others are founded. The justice hears and decides 
suits of every description growing out of disputes 
which continually arise in society. Petty offenses, 
and suits involving small amounts, usually under 
the value of $100, are tried here, though in all cases 
there is an appeal to the higher courts. Justices 
may perform the marriage ceremony. Their salaries 
consist of fees charged for services and collected of 
the parties to the suits. In cities justices are called 
magistrates. 

The Constable is elected for three years. He is 
commissioned by the court and is responsible for the 
peace of the community. He executes the orders of 
the justice of the peace, and when acting by order of 
the court his authority is supreme ; if he is resisted 
he can call upon any citizen or citizens to assist him. 
For his services he receives fees fixed by law, vary- 
ing with different kinds of service. 



22 ELEMENTS OF CIVII. GOVERNMENT. 

The Auditors are elected for three years, one new 
one each year. The duties of the board of auditors 
are to examine the books and vouchers of the 
various officers who have charge of township money, 
as treasurers for the board of supervisors, and school 
board. They certify to the correctness of the ac- 
counts and publish annually a statement setting 
forth the receipts and expenditures of public money. 
They are paid $2.00 a day out of town money by the 
supervisors for their services. 

The Assessor, with two assistants each third year, 
is elected for three years. His duty is to examine 
and fix values on all taxable property (land, horses, 
cattle, dogs, money, etc.) found within the town- 
ship. This valuation is made according to the best 
judgment of the assessor, but people who are not 
satisfied can appeal to the commissioners, who act as 
a court of appeal in this matter. All electors whose 
occupation tax does not amount to $1.00 are assessed 
what is called a minimum occupation tax of $1.00, 
which is added to the school tax. Assessors and 
their assistants are paid $2.00 a day for their ser- 
vices,out of township funds, by the supervisors. 



CHAPTER X. 

Township Officers (Continued). 

The Collector is elected for one year, and gives 
bonds to the commissioners for the faithful perform- 



TOWNSHIPS AND TOWNSHIP AFFAIRS. 23 

ance of his duties. His term of office begins the 
first Monday of April. In Pennsylvania he has 
three kinds of tax to collect, a separate duplicate 
being furnished for each. The duplicate is a book 
having the names of all taxables in the township, 
with the valuation of property as given by the asses- 
sors. One of these duplicates is given out by the 
supervisors, in which the cash road tax is figured 
out as soon as the rate of levy for that purpose is 
made, which is usually early in April. Another is 
given out by the school board, as soon as the new 
board organizes in June, and the levy for school pur- 
poses is made. Still another is given him early in 
April, by the county commissioners, as soon as they 
make out the levy for State, county, and poor pur- 
poses. In this duplicate is also put the tax on dogs. 
The collector, we see, serves both the township and 
county. He is one of the most important of the 
township officers. He receives as pay for his ser- 
vices, two per cent on all taxes paid to him within 
sixty days of the date of his printed or posted notice, 
and five per cent on all paid after the expiration of 
the sixty days. 

The Judge of Elections is elected for one year. It 
is his duty to decide all disputes in regard to the 
qualifications of those offering to vote. He also acts 
as return judge, that is, he carries the results to the 
proper place for recording, usually the county seat. 
He receives $1.50 a day for his services, and mileage 
in addition for services as return judge. 



24 ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

The Inspectors of Election are elected for one year. 
These inspectors shall be of different political 
parties, each elector voting for one inspector. The 
two receiving the highest number of votes are 
elected. It is their duty to keep the record of the 
voters, and assist the judges of election in all 
matters pertaining to the election. They appoint 
clerks to keep the tally-sheets, and each inspector, 
as well as the clerks, receives $1.50 a day for his 
services. 

Two School Directors are elected each year, for 
three years, whose duties, etc., are set forth under 
the head of School Districts, Chapter IV. 



CHAPTEE XL 

Township Officers (Continued). 

Three supervisors are elected, one each year, to 
serve three years. This number may be increased by 
vote of a majority of electors ; when increased, the 
term changes, if four are elected then two are elected 
each year to serve two years. The auditors shall re- 
quire supervisors to give bonds. The compensation 
received by supervisors is $1.50 a day for time spent 
in performing the several duties of the office. It is 
the business of the supervisors to look after the pub- 
lic highways and care for them. They levy the road 
tax, both cash and work tax ; they appoint the path- 
masters, see to the erection and repair of township 



TOWNSHIPS AND TOWNSHIP AFFAIRS. 25 

bridges, purchase and care for the road machines and 
other tools belonging to the township ; they also 
have charge of all township buildings, election 
houses and the like. No more important local offi- 
cers are elected by the people than supervisors. 

The public highways of our own country are much 
inferior to those of other countries, and yet a vast 
amount of money is collected each year in the form 
of road tax, and annually expended upon the high- 
ways, but is used in such a desultory and unscien- 
tific way that it is for the most part wasted. After 
from fifty to a hundred years of this kind of road- 
making ; after the expenditure of money and labor 
enough to have paved or macadamized the principal 
roads of the land, the people of the country and 
many towns are obliged to wade through mud and 
mire for the larger part of the year, many of the 
highways becoming actually impassable. It is high 
time that some reform be made in this matter, and 
the officers who are empowered to tax people for this 
purpose be held to stricter accountability for the 
manner in which the people's money is used. Hence 
we see that supervisors should be carefully selected, 
and then upheld by public sentiment in the right 
and scientific building and repair of roads. 

The Township Clerk is elected each year for one 
year. It is his duty to keep a record of the proceed- 
ings of the board of supervisors. He draws all 
orders on the township treasurer, serves notices, and 
performs any other public duties ordered by the 



26 ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

board of supervisors. He is paid such compensation 
for his services as the board of supervisors shall de- 
termine. 

The Treasurer is elected for one year, and it is his 
duty to give bond to the supervisors, to take charge 
of all money collected on duplicates issued by this 
board — that is, road tax or received from any other 
source, and to pay out the same on orders signed by 
the board and attested by the clerk. He receives for 
his services a certain per cent of money expended : 
the rate is fixed by supervisors, with approbation of 
the auditors. He must keep an accurate account of 
the money received and expended and lay the same 
before the board of auditors. 

Overseers of the Poor. — Townships in counties 
having no poorhouses managed by the county com- 
missioners, or poor districts with poorhouses man- 
aged by directors of the poor, shall elect two over- 
seers of the poor, one each year, to serve two years, 
such officers to receive $1.00 a day for services ren- 
dered. 

Pathmasters are men appointed by the board of 
supervisors, whose duty it is to look after certain 
sections of road called " beats.' ' To such is given 
a book containing the names, and amount of tax 
against each taxable belonging to his beat, and 
it is his duty to notify these persons when he wants 
them to come and work out the road tax against 
them. For his services he receives credit on his own 
work tax at the rate of $i 50 a day. 



TOWNSHIPS AND TOWNSHIP AFFAIRS. 2J 

CHAPTEE XII. 
Villages, Towns, and Cities. 

A village is generally a small collection of dwell- 
ings, though in some States the name is given to 
quite large business centers. In most States villages 
are not incorporated, that is, are not given by special 
legislation territorial limits and a new local govern- 
ment. In many States the word town is used in the 
same sense, though in general this name is given to 
a larger collection of buildings, and one that is in- 
corporated, that is, has a charter and its own local 
government. In Pennsylvania such villages or 
towns are called boroughs. A borough has its deed 
of incorporation granted by the State legislature, 
either by special or general law. It is made a dis- 
tinct political community, its privileges are enumer- 
ated, its officers have their duties assigned them, and 
it is empowered like the township to act independ- 
ently, though under the State and national Consti- 
tutions. 

A city always has a special local government, dif- 
fering but slightly from that of boroughs or incor- 
porated towns. In some States there are cities with 
less than 1,000 inhabitants, while in others there are 
villages or towns with 15,000 inhabitants, and yet 
having the simplest form of local government. 

City government usually conforms to our general 
governmental scheme in having an executive called 
the mayor, a legislative body called a council or 



28 ELEMENTS OF CIVII, GOVERNMENT. 

board of aldermen, and a judicial department which 
consists of police or magistrate courts, in place of 
the usual justice courts of townships, though in 
some cities they are exactly like the ordinary justice 
court. The council is often composed of two bodies, 
a common and a select council. 

The other city officials differ little except in name 
from the corresponding township officers. Instead 
of constable they have chief of police and policemen ; 
instead of supervisors they have street commission- 
ers ; they have auditors, assessors, collectors of 
taxes, and treasurers. Then they have special offi- 
cers not needed in country communities, such as 
city solicitor, city superintendent of schools (elected 
by the school board), besides boards of health, fire 
commissioners, etc., usually appointed by the execu- 
tive officer. 

For convenience of organization and government, 
cities are usually divided off into wards, and in large 
cities wards are divided into precincts. Cities have 
larger demands for funds than country communities, 
hence, besides bearing a proportional share of gen- 
eral burdens of taxation by the county, they have 
special forms of taxation, such as assessments for 
paving and sidewalks, usually laid on adjoining 
property. License fees are collected from those deal- 
ing in liquor. Gas and water companies usually pay 
the city for their privileges ; street car companies 
usually pay for the use of the streets, etc. Some 
cities own and operate the gas, water, and electric 



TOWNSHIPS AND TOWNSHIP AFFAIRS. 29 

plants, charging the citizens for the use of the 
same, which makes these sources of revenue, and 
helps to lighten the otherwise heavy burden of tax- 
ation. 



PART III. 

COUNTY AND COUNTY AFFAIRS. 

CHAPTEE XIII. 

Historical. 

In England, where we found the type from which 
most of our local divisions are derived, the territory 
governed by a count was called a county, hence the 
name. These divisions were often called shires, the 
chief officer of which was called shire-reeve or 
sheriff, from which we have the name of our own 
local county officer though the duties have been 
much changed. In the South the county is the local 
unit. In New England the county is made up of 
"towns," and was first established for judicial pur- 
poses. Its functions have been extended, however, 
until now it exercises many which formerly be- 
longed to the town. In New York, Pennsylvania, 
and other States west, we find the best types of or- 
ganization. "Where the township exists, usually 
the county takes no more than local administration 
of justice, maintenance of county buildings, equali- 
zation of taxes, granting of certain licenses, and 
partial supervision of highways.* ' — Higby. 

30 



COUNTY AND COUNTY AFFAIRS. 3 1 

Parish is the name given in Louisiana to this local 
area. 

The New York form of township-county organiza- 
tion has been reproduced in many States farther 
west, as Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Ne- 
braska. Under this form there is an executive board 
called the board of supervisors, composed of one 
supervisor from each township, who is at once a 
township and a county officer. They have the town 
meetings to legislate on certain matters, while the 
administrative county board, composed of township 
representatives, has general supervision. This sys- 
tem facilitates the shifting of business from one to 
the other as convenience may dictate. 

In Pennsylvania the county was the first organized 
local unit; the Court of Quarter Sessions was the 
governing body, but the non-judicial business was 
taken out of the hands of the court and vested in a 
board of commissioners elected by the people of the 
county. Then the townships were organized for the 
purpose of choosing the local officers, some of whom 
we have seen act as agents for the county. In some 
places the townships care for the poor ; in others the 
county maintains a poorhouse and farm, and takes 
charge of those who are so unfortunate as to need 
the help of their fellow-men in old age or misfor- 
tune and affliction. Here we have no town meeting 
with local legislative powers, this function being 
vested in the township board of supervisors. Modi- 
fied forms of this system are found in Ohio, Indiana, 



32 ELEMENTS OF CIVII. GOVERNMENT. 

Iowa, and other States in this belt. Before the Civil 
War the Virginia type was found throughout the 
South, coextensive with slavery. These followed 
the model of the English shire Court of Quarter 
Sessions composed of justices originally appointed 
by the Governor, but afterwards nominated by the 
court itself, making it virtually a corporation filling 
its own vacancies. Here, then, only State offi- 
cers were chosen by the people. Since the war, 
county commissioners have been elected, taking 
non-judicial business from this court, and the town- 
ships are beginning to appear as the people demand 
closer local supervision. The mixed system, as 
shown in New York or Pennsylvania, seems to give 
the people the largest possible share in local govern- 
ment, consistent with reasonable dispatch in the 
conduct of business. 



CHAPTEE 2tIV. 

County Elections. 

It is a nearly uniform custom to hold the elections 
for county officers on the first Tuesday after the first 
Monday of November. In some States such elec- 
tions are held each year, but in Pennsylvania every 
three years, so that the term of office of all county 
officers (except judges) is three years, and they take 
possession of their respective offices the first of Jan- 
uary next succeeding their election. These elections 



COUNTY AND COUNTY AFFAIRS. $$ 

are conducted by the regularly elected local election 
officers, in the same manner and subject to the 
same laws and regulations as township elections. 
The regular county officers so elected are : judge, 
sheriff, coroner, prothonotary, clerk of courts, regis- 
ter of wills, recorder of deeds, and district attorney. 
These are all closely related to the judicial side of 
our local government. Three county commissioners 
(in some States called supervisors), three auditors, 
two jury commissioners, county surveyor, county 
treasurer, and county superintendent of schools. 

The Governor appoints notaries public for three 
years, and the commissioners appoint their clerk and 
attorney, physician for the jail and poor, janitor for 
the courthouse, mercantile appraiser, and overseer of 
the poorhouse and farm. 



CHAPTEE XV. 

County Courts. 

President judge is in some senses the highest and 
most important officer in the county. He is elected 
by the people and serves for ten years, at a salary 
ranging from $4,000 to $7,000 a year, varying accord- 
ing to the amount of business to be transacted. 
The judge is commissioned by the Governor, and re- 
ceives his pay also from the State treasury. At pres- 
ent in Pennsylvania, a judge is to be a man "learned 
in law." He presides over all the different kinds of 



34 KI/EMENTS OF CIVIIy GOVERNMENT. 

county courts. In some States there are different 
judges for the different kinds of business. Some- 
times the territory called judicial district, over which 
a judge holds court, is greater than the county, and 
sometimes less, as in large cities like Philadelphia 
and Pittsburg. So the judge is not, strictly speak- 
ing, a county officer, but is classed as such for con- 
venience. 

These courts are named Common Pleas Court, Or- 
phans' Court, Court of Quarter Sessions, and Court 
of Oyer and Terminer. 

In Common Pleas Court are tried all causes which 
grow out of breaches of contract, and the like. 
These are called civil cases. 

Orphans' Court, in some States called Probate 
Court (with a special judge), hears all matters relat- 
ing to the settlement of estates, wills, appointment 
of guardians, etc., which cannot be settled by the 
register of wills. 

Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace hears all 
causes of a criminal character, except such as are 
named in the law as coming under the jurisdiction 
of the higher criminal court. 

The Court of Oyer and Terminer and General fail 
Delivery tries all higher criminal cases, such as trea- 
son, murder, robbery, arson, and the like. In these 
cases, this court has exclusive jurisdiction, while it 
also tries certain kinds of criminal cases sent up by 
the Court of Quarter Sessions. 

The judge also holds a special court called License 



COUNTY AND COUNTY AFFAIRS. 35 

Court, in which are heard the claims of persons who 
apply for licenses to sell liquors. 

Courts convene, usually, four times a year, begin- 
ning on the second Monday of January or February, 
and the session continues until the docket is cleared, 
or the judge adjourns court. The second session 
usually convenes on the second Monday of May, and 
is called the May term. The third session is set for 
the second Monday of September, and is called the 
September term, while the last term is called the 
November term. Where the same judge presides at 
all these courts, he can hear common pleas or crimi- 
nal cases at any time, at his pleasure. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Couxty Officers. 

The Sheriff is the guardian of the peace of the 
county, and executes the orders of the courts. He 
is elected at a general election of county officers, for 
three years, and cannot succeed himself. His com- 
pensation is paid in the form of fees, which are col- 
lected from the parties having business with him, 
and are fixed by law in the same manner as that of 
constable. He can execute the decrees of the court 
in any other county, but may not go into another 
State for this purpose except by permission of the 
Governor thereof. He seizes the property of delin- 
quent debtors on order from the court and sells the 



36 ELEMENTS OF CIVII, GOVERNMENT. 

same. From the proceeds of the sale he deducts the 
debt and the expenses of the sale, and returns to the 
owner of the property any balance there may be. He 
serves all papers of the court, has the care of county 
prisons and prisoners. He issues election procla- 
mations, and must maintain the peace of the county, 
and if necessary may summon the posse comitatus, 
and in extreme cases call on the Governor and 
President for militia or military assistance. Such a 
case was that of the riot at Homestead in 1892, when 
several regiments were ordered out to keep the 
peace. From the nature of the business he often has 
large sums of money in his possession, in conse- 
quence of which he is required to give heavy bonds 
to the court for the faithful performance of his duty. 
His salary is either a fixed salary or a certain per- 
centage, or fees as before stated. His office must be 
at the county seat. 

The County Coroner is an officer elected for three 
years, whose duty is to hold inquisition, or "coro- 
oner's inquest,* ' over the body of any person who 
has died a violent death, or who died while a pris- 
oner. He summons a jury of bystanders to assist, 
called the coroners jury. His duties are of consid- 
erable importance to society. He serves as sheriff in 
cases where the regular officer is a party, and in case 
of death or otherwise he becomes sheriff. Compen- 
sation consists of fees fixed by law. In cities the 
coroner is paid a salary ranging from $500 to $5,000 
a year. 



COUNTY AND COUNTY AFFAIRS. S7 

County Surveyor is also elected for three years. 
His duties vary in different States ; in some he has 
general charge of all road and bridge work, but in 
Pennsylvania the office is unimportant, and has to 
do only with the determining of boundaries, etc., 
when employed by private individuals. 



CHAPTEE XVII. 

County Officers (Continued). 

The District Attorney is elected for three years, at 
the general election. It is his duty to prosecute all 
persons charged with crime or offense against the 
law, who are brought before the court for trial. He 
acts for the county in all cases in which its interests 
are affected, unless the county commissioners have 
an attorney of their own. His compensation is made 
up of fees fixed by law, and is paid by the parties 
as assessed by the court or juries, or in default, by 
the county. 

The Clerk of Courts is the recording officer of the 
court. He also is elected for three years. He keeps 
the records of business of the court and issues most 
of the legal papers used in the trial of causes. His 
seal proves the genuineness of any legal paper. His 
salary consists of certain fees collected for the issu- 
ance of legal papers, etc. 

The Prothonotary is the clerk of the common pleas 
court. This is also an office of record. He issues 



38 ELEMENTS OF CIVII. GOVERNMENT. 

all summonses and other processes in civil actions, 
enters all decrees of the court and issues all execu- 
tions for their enforcement. All judgments are re- 
corded here. He is paid by means of fees fixed by 
law. 

The Register of Wills performs many of the duties 
of a probate court, takes all initiatory steps in the 
settlement of estates, recording of wills, and appoint- 
ment of administrators and the like. In such mat- 
ters he is not subject to the Orphans' Court, which 
has reference to final settlements, appointment of 
guardians, and the like. He is elected for three 
years, and is paid by fees collected of parties having 
business with him. 

The Recorder of Deeds has charge of all records of 
the transfers of real estate, copies all deeds and 
mortgages, and keeps a permanent record of the 
same. The pay tor this is collected of the parties 
doing business there, in the form of fees. In some 
counties, one person performs the functions of both 
offices. 

The County Commissioners are the administrative 
officers of the county. The board consists of three 
members. They are elected for three years, and one 
of them must be the minority candidate who receives 
the highest number of votes. They have charge of 
county bridges, buildings, and other property. They 
levy taxes for State, county, and poor purposes, act 
as a board of equalization, have care of the county 
poor, provide voting places, and attend to all matters 



COUNTY AND COUNTY AFFAIRS. 39 

in which the county as a whole is interested. They 
appoint a clerk to the board, janitor to the court- 
house, an attorney to advise them in legal matters, 
an overseer of the poorhouse and farm, physician to 
the jail, mercantile appraiser, fix their salary, and 
make provision for their payment. They issue all 
orders on the county treasurer for money, approve 
the bonds of the treasurer and collectors, etc. They 
are paid $3.50 a day and actual traveling expenses, 
for services in both capacities as commissioners and 
overseers of the poor, out of the funds of the county. 
In some counties they are paid salaries fixed by 
special laws. 



CHAPTEE XVIII. 
County Officees (Continued). 

The County Treasurer is elected for three years, 
and is ineligible for re-election to succeed himself. 
He gives bonds to the commissioners, and has 
charge of all State and county money. The former 
is paid out on warrant from the State treasurer, the 
latter on warrant from the county commissioners. 
He is paid a certain rate per cent on money paid out 
— rate fixed by county commissioners. 

The Auditors are elected for three years, in the 
same manner as the county commissioners. The 
board consists of three members, one of whom is a 
minority candidate. The duties are to examine and 
pass upon all expenditures made by the board of 



40 ELEMENTS OF CIVII, GOVERNMENT. 

commissioners. The report or statement of this 
board is published for the inspection of the people of 
the county. 

Jury Commissioners are elected for three years, and 
receive $2.50 a day for their services. They, to- 
gether with the judge, make up the lists of jurors 
from which the various juries are drawn. They have 
charge of the jury wheel, a device used in Pennsyl- 
vania for the impartial drawing of names of " sober, 
intelligent, and judicious* ' persons to serve as jurors 
in the various county courts. 

Poor Directors, — In some counties the county com- 
missioners serve as overseers of the poor, while in 
others they are elected the same as the other county 
officers. Their duties are the same in either case. 
They have general oversight of the county poor- 
house and farm, paying out money from the county 
poor funds for the support and care of the poor or 
afflicted who need the assistance of their fellow- men 
during old age. The pay for these services varies in 
different sections ; by general law they receive $3.50 
a day and actual traveling expenses for their services 
in either capacity. 

The County Superintendent of Schools is the high- 
est school officer in the county. He is elected for 
three years by the school directors of the county in 
convention assembled. The county superintendent is 
to be a person (male or female), of good moral char- 
acter, of literary and scientific acquirements, and 
skilled in the art of teaching. This official is only 



COUNTY AND COUNTY AFFAIRS. 41 

in a limited sense a county officer, being commis- 
sioned by the State superintendent of schools, and 
paid out of State funds. The salary is $4.50 for each 
school under his jurisdiction, except that it shall not 
be below a certain sum ($800), or over $2,000. The 
convention of school directors, however, may raise 
his salary, the additional amount to be paid out of 
the funds of the districts. The duties of the county 
superintendent of schools are to visit schools as 
often as practicable, to examine teachers, and issue 
certificates to such as are found to have the neces- 
sary qualifications, to conduct the annual county 
teachers' institute, as required by law, and to make 
report to the State superintendent as often as is 
required by law. 



PART IV. 

THE STATE. 

CHAPTEE XIX. 

Historical. 

In i 2 15 King John was forced to sign a document, 
enumerating certain rights, privileges, and immuni- 
ties, which were to belong thereafter to all English- 
men. This was the famous Magna Charta. In 1628 
the House of Commons forced King Charles I. to sign 
the " Petition of Right/ ' defining more clearly and 
extending these rights, In 1679 the habeas corpus 
act was added to these others, making it impossible 
to keep a citizen in prison without trial, for an 
indefinite time. In 1689 Parliament forced the Stew- 
art Kings to sign the Bill of Rights, which, with 
the preceding documents, was to form the bulwark 
of English liberty for succeeding generations. 
These rights, wrung from the heriditary rulers of 
England, during the preceding centuries, are all 
incorporated in the constitutions which form the 
basis or groundwork of all American governmental 
institutions. These constitutions refer to the people 
as the source of all authority. 

" A State is a political community of free citizens, 

42 



THE STATE. 43 

occupying definite territory, organized under a gov- 
ernment sanctioned and limited by a written consti- 
tution, and established by the consent of the people 
governed. ' ' — Thorpe, 



CHAPTEE XX. 

The Legislature. 

The Legislative Department consists of two 
bodies called the House of Representatives, or As- 
sembly, and the Senate. They make laws in 
harmony with the State and national Constitutions, 
and by authority of the people of the State. The 
State is divided into representative and senatorial 
districts. The representative districts are smaller 
than the senatorial, hence the membership of the 
House of Representatives is greater than that of the 
Senate. The lower House represents more nearly 
the local interests of the people. The number of 
members varies in different States. In Pennsylvania 
there are 204 representatives and 50 senators. The 
usual term of representatives is two years and sena- 
tors four years. In many States they meet every 
two years, but are subject to the call of the Governor 
in extra session. The pay varies from $1.00 to $8.00 
a day. In Pennsylvania the salary is $1,500 per ses- 
sion, with mileage, and a certain fixed sum for 
stationery and postage. The elections are held in 
November, and all the electors of the district have a 



44 ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

voice in choosing these, their representatives. Their 
qualifications are fixed by the Constitution of the 
State. 



CHAPTEE XXI. * 

Executive Officers. 

The Executive Department consists of the 
Governor and his secretaries, usually appointed. 

The Governor is elected by the people at general 
election, in November, for a term of from one to 
four years. In Pennsylvania the term is four years, 
beginning on the third Tuesday of January next 
succeeding the election. The Governor is ineligible 
for re-election to succeed himself. The duties are, to 
see that the laws of the State are faithfully executed ; 
he acts as commander of militia, appoints all officers 
not elected by the people (which appointments must 
be confirmed by the Senate), he fills vacancies, com- 
missions his appointed officers, signs or vetoes bills 
passed by the legislature. He can pardon or reprieve 
criminals. In Pennsylvania a board of pardons must 
recommend a case to the Governor before he may 
take such action thereon. His salary is $10,000 a 
year. 

The Lieutenant-Governor is elected at the same 
time and for the same term as the Governor. He 
presides over the Senate, and acts as Governor in 
case of vacancy in that office. Salary, $3,000 a year. 



THE STATE. 45 

The State Treasurer is chosen by the people at 
the general election, every second year, and is com- 
missioned by the Governor to serve for two years 
from the first Monday of May next succeeding 
his election. His duties are to receive and receipt 
for all moneys paid into the State treasury, to 
pay all warrants drawn by the proper officers upon 
appropriations made by law. His salary is $5,000 
a year. 

The Auditor General is chosen by the people, at 
the general election, every third year, and serves for 
three years from the first Tuesday of May next suc- 
ceeding his election. The duties of the auditor 
general are generally to examine and settle all ac- 
counts between the Commonwealth and any per- 
son, officer, department, association, or corporation. 
He examines annually and reports upon the con- 
dition of the State treasury. His salary is $3,000 a 
year. 

The Secretary of Internal Affairs is chosen by the 
people at the general election every fourth year, and 
commissioned by the Governor to serve for four 
years from the first Tuesday of May following his 
election. It is his especial duty to exercise a watch- 
ful supervision over the railroad, banking, mining, 
manufacturing, and other business corporations of 
the State, and see that they confine themselves 
strictly within their corporate limits. He is a mem- 
ber of the board of pardons. His salary is $3,000 a 
year. 



46 ELEMENTS OF CIVII, GOVERNMENT. 

OHAPTEE XXII. 

Executive Officers (Continued). 

The following are trie more important of trie State 
officers appointed by trie Governor : 

The Secretary of the Commonwealth is the head of 
the State department. He is appointed by the Gov- 
ernor and confirmed by the Senate. He is a member 
of the board of pardons. His duties bring him into 
intimate relations with the Governor, as nearly all 
the official transactions of the latter pass through 
his hands, and a record of all his official acts is kept 
in the State department. The secretary is the 
keeper of the seals of the State, and affixes them to, 
and countersigns such instruments as the law re- 
quires. He is paid $4,000 a year. 

The Attorney General is appointed by the Gov- 
ernor at his pleasure, with the consent of the Senate. 
He is the legal adviser of the Governor and heads of 
departments. Salary $3,500 a year. 

The Superintendent of Public Instruction is ap- 
pointed by the Governor, with the advice and con- 
sent of the Senate, for the term of four years. He 
has general supervision of the schools of the Com- 
monwealth, commissions county, city, and borough 
superintendents of the common schools, appoints 
and commissions trustees on the part of the State 
for State normal schools, conducts the annual exam- 
inations of students for graduation in the State nor- 
mal schools, and appoints the State board of exam- 



THE STATE. 47 

iners. Whenever required he gives advice, explana- 
tions, construction, or information to the district 
officers, and to citizens, relative to the common 
school law, the duties of common school officers, the 
rights and duties of parents, guardians, pupils, and 
all others, the management of the schools, and all 
other questions and matters calculated to promote 
the cause of education, and signs all orders on the 
State treasurer for the payment of such moneys to 
the treasurers of the several school districts, as they 
may be entitled to receive from the State, and for all 
other moneys to be paid out of the appropriation to 
the common schools. His salary was fixed by the 
legislature of 1893 at $4,000 a year. 

The Adjutant General is appointed by the Gov- 
ernor, with the consent of the Senate. He is chief 
of the Governor's staff, is his military executive 
officer, issues all orders to the national guard of the 
State, and is charged with their execution by the 
Governor. 

The Insurance Commissioner is appointed by the 
Governor, with the advice and consent of the Senate, 
and commissioned to serve for three years from the 
first Monday of May next following his confirma- 
tion. His duties are to see that the insurance laws 
are faithfully executed. His salary is $3,000 a 
year. 

Besides these officers mentioned there are various 
other boards and commissions which have charge of 
special work. 



4# ELEMENTS OF CIVII, GOVERNMENT. 

CHAPTEK XXIII. 

The State Judiciary. 

The judicial power of the State is exercised by the 
Supreme Court, in some States called the Court of 
Appeals. Term of office, number of justices, compen- 
sation, etc., differ in different States. In Pennsyl- 
vania this court consists of seven justices, elected by 
the electors of the State at large : they hold office 
for twenty-one years, unless disqualified by misde- 
meanors ; they are not eligible for re-election. The 
justice whose commission expires first is Chief Jus- 
tice. 

The jurisdiction of this court extends over the 
State. These justices may preside over Courts of 
Oyer and Terminer in the various counties, and have 
original jurisdiction in certain kinds of cases. 

Appeals from the lower courts are carried to the 
Supreme Court, whose decisions are final, except in 
such cases as are designated in the Federal Consti- 
tution, which may be appealed to the United States 
Supreme Court. 

The State is divided for convenience into three dis- 
tricts : the eastern, for which court sits at Philadel- 
phia ; the middle, for which court sits at Harris- 
burg ; and the western, for which court sits at Pitts- 
burg. 

The salary of the Chief Justice is $8,500 a year ; 
that of each justice of the Supreme Court is $8,000 a 
year. 



THE STATE. 49 

In one sense all the lower courts are State courts, 
the judges being commissioned by the Governor, and 
paid from the State treasury, but they are here 
treated as belonging more especially to the lim- 
ited territorial areas which elect them. 

At present (January 1894) the Supreme Court con- 
sists of the following justices : Chief Justice — Hon. 
James P. Sterrett, Pittsburg ; Justices — Hon. Henry 
Green, Easton, Northampton County ; Hon. Henry 
W. Williams, Wellsboro, Tioga County ; Hon. J. 
Brewster McCollum, Montrose, Susquehanna Coun- 
ty ; Hon. James T. Mitchell, Philadelphia ; Hon. 
John Dean, of Hollidaysburg, Blair County ; Hon. 
D. Newlin Fell, of Philadelphia. 



PART V. 

THE NATION. 

CHAPTEE XXIV. 

Historical. 

Besides the State governments, there is another, 
to which all the people of all the States are subject. 
This is called the United States government, and in 
certain matters it has authority over State govern- 
ments. The people of all the States adopted another 
constitution. This United States Constitution es- 
tablishes a superior government for all the people, 
called the national government. 

History tells how thirteen British colonies, after 
seven long years of war, became thirteen sovereign 
States. How for mutual help and protection a con- 
federation was formed which went into effect in 1781. 
It also tells that the plan of union thus outlined was 
soon found to be defective and imperfect. In this 
plan it was found that Congress had no power, ex- 
cept to recommend to the States things that should 
be done. Under menace of actual war, the States (or 
colonies) followed these recommendations, but as 
soon as peace was established the inherent weakness 
of the union began to manifest itself. 

50 



the; nation. 51 

Some legislatures refused to raise money, some 
levied high duties, some low, and innumerable jeal- 
ousies arose, which threatened the fair fabric which 
our forefathers had formed in war, and cemented 
with their best blood. So, in 1787, Congress passed 
a resolution providing for a convention of delegates 
from all the States. All except Rhode Island sent 
delegates as requested, and that body of statesmen 
formulated our present national Constitution, which 
has stood the test of more than a century of unprec- 
edented growth and prosperity. The result in 
every emergency has proved the wisdom and far- 
seeing statesmanship of those noble men, who put 
aside all petty jealousies and local interests, and 
labored in the interest of posterity. It is one of 
the grandest documents ever made by man. 

The government of the Confederation was a league, 
a federal government. That established by the Con- 
stitution is a national government with some federal 
features. This federal idea was allowed to remain, 
giving as much independence to the States as is 
consistent or compatible with strength in the central 
government. 

The essential difference between the Articles of 
Confederation and the Constitution is seen in the 
first sentence of each. The former says, " The said 
States hereby severally enter into a firm league," 
etc., while the latter says. u We, the people of the 
United States, in order to form a more perfect 
union," etc., making the government depend upon 



52 ELEMENTS OF CI VII, GOVERNMENT. 

the people themselves for its stability and perma- 
nence. The Civil War finally settled this question, 
establishing beyond a doubt the fact that the people 
of the whole Union constitute the nation. 

The Constitution establishes legislative, executive, 
and judicial departments, and this was the model 
for nearly all the State Constitutions in this partic- 
ular. 



OHAPTEE XXV. 

Legislative Department. 

Congress. — This is the name given to the na- 
tional legislative body. It is divided into a House of 
Representatives and a Senate. The members of the 
former body are elected by the people of the States 
every second year ; those of the latter are elected by 
the State legislatures, and represent the States ; and 
here we find a trace of the idea of the importance of 
the State, " State sovereignty.' ' 

The number of representatives is limited by the 
Constitution to one for every 30,000 inhabitants ; 
but Congress increases the ratio of representation 
from time to time, to keep the House from becoming 
too large for comfort and control by the speaker ; the 
ratio for the last census (1890) was one representative 
for every 173,901 inhabitants. Every State is entitled 
to at least one representative, even if its population 
falls below the constitutional limit of 30,000 inhabit- 
ants ; the Constitution provides for this. 



THE NATION. 53 

The Senate consists of two senators from each 
State ; thus the House represents the people in gen- 
eral, the Senate, the States ; the representation of all 
the States in the Senate is equal, each having the same 
number — two — no matter how large or how small. 
Texas and Rhode Island have equal representation. 
The members of the House represent the people who 
elect them, not by States, but in proportion to the 
population. The State legislature divides the State 
into Congressional districts. 

A representative must be twenty-five years old, 
must have been a citizen for seven years, and must 
live in the State which elects him, though not in the 
district he represents. A senator must be thirty 
years of age, must have been a citizen for nine years, 
and must live in the State which he represents. 
Representatives are chosen for two years ; senators 
for six. 

The House chooses all its own officers, and has 
the sole right of impeachment. The Vice-President 
of the United States is the Chairman of the Senate, 
and can only vote when his vote will ' ' break a tie. ' ' 
The Senate acts as court of judgment in all cases of 
impeachment. 



CHAPTEE XXVI. 

Legislative Depart^iext (Continued.) 

Congress meets every year in December, but "A 
Congress " consists of the first two sessions of Con- 



54 ELEMENTS OF CIVII, GOVERNMENT. 

gress following an election. Each House has its 
own general rules, appoints its own committees, and 
does its work independently, having no connection 
with the other House. 

A committee is a subordinate body appointed by 
the chairman of either House, consisting of selected 
members from the body. The duty of these bodies 
is to consider certain matters previous to the action 
of the House to which they belong. Their actions 
are subject to the will of their House in all cases. 
A bill may originate in either House, and after 
passing that House must go to the other. Then 
it passes to the President, who either signs or vetoes 
it. But revenue bills must originate in the lower 
House, and the Senate may amend them as well as 
others. A vetoed bill may be passed "over the 
President's veto" by a second vote of both Houses, 
if there is a two thirds majority in favor of passing 
the bill. 

The special powers, privileges, and restrictions of 
Congress are enumerated in the Constitution, and all 
powers not here delegated to the United States gov- 
ernment are considered by the Tenth Amendment to 
the Constitution as being reserved to the several 
States, or to the people. 

The salaries of representatives and senators are 
fixed by Congress itself, and are paid out of the 
national treasury. That of a member of the lower 
House is $5,000 ; that of a senator is the same. The 
The Speaker of the lower House gets $8,000 ; the 



THE NATION. 55 

Vice-President, or Speaker of the Senate, also gets 
$8,000. The number of representatives from the 
State of Pennsylvania is at present (1893) 30 ; the 
whole number in the House of Representatives be- 
ing 356 (1890 to 1900). The whole number of sena- 
tors at present is 88. 



CHAPTEE XXVII. 

Executive Department. . 

This department of the government applies the 
laws after they have been made by the legislative 
and interpreted by the judicial departments. It is 
vested in a President or chief executive, and a cabi- 
net composed of the heads of certain departments 
and commissions established by Congress at differ- 
ent times to assist the President in performing the 
duties devolved upon him as head of this department 
in the government of the nation. 

The President must be a native-born citizen of the 
United States, and must have attained the age of 
thirty-five years, besides having the ordinary quali- 
fications of an elector. 

A President is elected every four years by a body 
of presidential electors who are chosen by the people 
on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in No- 
vember. This body of electors constitutes what is 
called the Electoral College. It is composed of as 
many delegates from each State as that State has 



56 ELEMENTS OF CIVII, GOVERNMENT. 

senators and representatives in Congress. These 
electors meet on the second Monday of January, 
usually in their respective State capitals, and vote 
by ballot for President and Vice-President. Three 
lists are then made which are called " returns." 
These are signed and certified and two of them trans- 
mitted sealed to the President of the Senate at 
Washington, and one is left with the judges of the 
United States District Court where the electors met. 
These lists are opened in the presence of the Senate 
and House of Representatives, and the votes counted 
on the second Wednesday of February. The ones 
who receive the greatest number of votes are de- 
clared to be elected, provided the number of votes 
received be a majority of all the electors appointed. 
If no person receive such a majority then the elec- 
tion of President falls upon the House of Represent- 
atives, and that of Vice-President devolves upon the 
Senate. 

The President sees that the laws are properly ex- 
ecuted, acts as commander-in-chief of the army and 
navy of the nation, and the militia of the several 
States when in the service of the United States ; 
makes treaties, and appoints ambassadors, consuls, 
foreign ministers, judges of the Supreme Court, 
cabinet officers, and other inferior officers, as post- 
masters, etc., with the consent of two thirds of the 
Senate ; sends messages to Congress ; convenes ex- 
tra sessions of Congress, and receives foreign min- 
isters. His salary is $50,000 a year. 



THE NATION. 57 

CHAPTEE XXVIII. 
Executive Department (Continued). 

The Vice-President must have the same qualifica- 
tions as the President. He is the presiding officer 
of the Senate ; he becomes President if, on account 
of death, resignation, or other constitutional dis- 
ability of the President, the executive chair becomes 
vacant. It will be seen that the Vice-President is 
not a regular executive officer unless he becomes 
President ; his duties as chairman of the Senate are 
of a legislative character. His salary is $8,000 a 
year. 

The Cabinet Officers are : Secretary of state, 
secretary of war, secretary of the treasury, secretary 
of the navy, secretary of interior, secretary of agri- 
culture, postmaster general, and attorney general. 
These officers are at the head of their respective de- 
partments, and they have charge of all matters re- 
lating to them. They meet regularly with the Pres- 
ident and discuss national affairs, and constitute a 
board of political advisers. The salary of each is 
$8,ooo a year. 

The Secretary of State is the only officer in our 
federal government who has the power to commu- 
nicate with other governments in the name of the 
President. He negotiates treaties, and has charge 
of the great seal of the United States. 

The Secretary of the Treasury has charge of the 
finances of the nation, coining money and issuing 



58 ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

treasury notes. He can be called upon to suggest 
means of maintaining national credit or creating 
revenues. His most important duty is the manage- 
ment of the debt. 

The Secretary of War has charge of the military 
affairs of the nation. He keeps the records of the 
army, and takes measures for the survey of the har- 
bors and improvement of navigation. He also has 
charge of the signal service and weather bureau. 

The Secretary of the Navy, under the direction of 
the President, manages the naval affairs of the na- 
tion. The naval observatory at Washington is 
under the charge of this department. 

The Secretary of the Interior is intrusted with the 
management of matters relative to public land, In- 
dians, schools, pensions, and patents. He has 
charge of the census, and manages home or domes- 
tic affairs generally. 

The Postmaster General has the charge of the pos- 
tal interests of the nation. He appoints postmasters 
whose salaries are below $1,000, and controls the 
style of stamps and postal cards. 

The Attorney General is the chief law officer of the 
nation. He represents the United States in all suits 
at law in which the United States is a party. 

The Secretary of Agriculture is intrusted with the 
agricultural interests of the country. He manages 
all agricultural experiment stations, and issues crop 
statistics. 

Under these heads of departments are various 



the nation. 59 

commissions and bureaus, having special work to 
do. This subdivision simplifies the work and makes 
it more effective. 



CHAPTEE XXIX. 

Judicial Department. 

The Constitution provides for a national judicial 
department, consisting of a Supreme Court, with in- 
ferior courts, established from time to time. These 
inferior courts are of two kinds : circuit courts, nine 
in number, and district courts, at present (1894) 
sixty-four in number. 

The Supreme Court consists of a Chief Justice and 
eight associatiate justices appointed by the Presi- 
dent to hold office for life, unless removed by im- 
peachment. This court holds one session each year, 
lasting from October until May. It hears cases ap- 
pealed from the lower courts, and has original juris- 
diction in cases affecting foreign ministers and 
consuls, and those in which a State is a party. The 
salary of Chief Justice is $10,500 a year ; that of 
associate justice, $10,000 a year. 

The circuit courts, nine in number, are presided 
over by circuit judges appointed by the President for 
life, unless removed by impeachment. Each one of 
the nine supreme justices must visit a circuit and 
hold court at least once in two years. Besides these, 
two regular circuit courts are held annually, pre- 



60 ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

sided over by the circuit judge, alone or with the 
district judge of the district in which court is sitting, 
There are circuit court commissioners, appointed by 
the judge of the circuit, who help in the arrest, ex- 
amination, and committal of persons accused of 
offenses against the national government. These 
commissioners are the most numerous and widely 
distributed of federal judicial officers. As a State 
judicial officer or justice of the peace acts in State 
matters, so a circuit commissioner acts in matters of 
federal offense. But as these commissioners are not 
always on hand, any judge or magistrate, of either 
the State or federal government, is empowered to 
£ct as a commissioner. He has no legal right to act 
in federal matters if he be a State officer, but if 
necessity arise, he may become a national officer, 
and act as such. 

In 189 1 Congress established in each circuit a court 
of appeals, consisting of three judges, who hear ap- 
peals from the circuit court. Circuit courts hear 
appeals from the district courts. The district and 
circuit courts may have original jurisdiction in a 
great variety of cases involving offenses against the 
United States. 

The district courts, sixty-four in number at pres- 
ent, are the lowest federal courts. Every State has 
at least one judicial district, and some have two ; 
New York, Texas, and Alabama have three each. In 
a few cases one judge supplies two or more districts. 
There are in most districts four terms held annually, 



THE NATION. 6l 

and some special terms. The district judge is ap- 
pointed by the President, for the same time as in 
the higher federal court? . There is a federal district 
attorney in most districts, appointed by the Presi- 
dent, whose duty it is to prosecute criminal cases, 
and to appear in all civil cases before the resident 
district judge who presides over the district court ; 
he also appoints a United States marshal, whose 
duties are those of a sheriff of the district, in all fed- 
eral cases. District court may try any cases com- 
mitted against the United States in the district, ex- 
cept such as are punishable by death. The resident 
district judge has an annual salary of S5,ooo. 

The United States Court of Claims is a court es- 
tablished by Congress for the settlement of certain 
claims which otherwise would have to be settled by 
Congress. In this court only can suit be brought 
against the government. If the suit is decided in 
favor of the claimant, the case is referred to Con- 
gress, whose business it is to see that the claim is 
settled. 



CHAPTEE XXX. 

The Nation.* 

The nation is the people, not as a confederation of 

individuals, but as a moral unit. It is distinct from 

a party or a faction. It is distinct from the offices 

♦Most of this chapter is abridged from Thorpe's delightful work 
on Civil Government. 



62 ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

created in its formal expression of government. It 
is distinct from its constitution and its treaties. Its 
elements are the people and the land. Natural 
boundaries alone can determine its confines. The 
waves of the sea, the cold of the North, the heat of 
the South, will ultimately divide us from the lands 
of other nations. 

The nation alone is sovereign. Its will is ex- 
pressed from time to time by its chosen representa- 
tives acting together in convention. The nation is 
older than the written constitution. As a sovereign 
it determines for itself its aim and its object in his- 
tory. It declares its will and embodies its spirit in 
its institutions. The government of the people of 
the United States is the formal expression of the will 
of the nation. The unwritten constitution is the 
development of the nation in history, its customs, 
its laws, its opinions, its moral sense finding expres- 
sion in its institutions. The written constitution is 
changed by the will of the people. Social revolu- 
tions, industrial changes, political revolutions, cause 
changes in the written supreme law of the land. At 
critical times in the nation's history the constitution 
is naught, and the people by their decision impart a 
new meaning to the formal instrument. The exist- 
ence of it is necessary to the existence of the nation, 
and the nation to the existence of the citizen. The 
nation is not apart from the citizen ; he is in and of 
the nation. In it and through it he realizes his 
rights and is protected in them. The citizen has his 



THE NATION. 63 

own destiny to work out consistent with the moral 
order of the world. All he realizes is made possible 
to him by his own nature, and he is responsible for 
the exercise of his own powers. When every citi- 
zen is conscious of his industrial, his political, his 
social, and his moral nature, then, has the nation its 
full strength and the citizen a realization of a com- 
plete life. The nation complements the activities of 
the citizen and institutes and maintains for his 
benefit a field for his reasonable and normal de- 
velopment. The nation is thus bound to educate 
the citizen harmoniously, offering him opportuni- 
ties for industrial, political, social, and moral train- 
ing. Its constant function is to place within his 
reach the realization of his loftiest hopes and pur- 
poses, and to exalt his manhood and ennoble human 
life with human sympathy. The majesty of law, 
the authority of government, the solemn declaration 
of treaties and constitutions gather like a benedic- 
tion on the sacredness of the family and the home. 
The foes of the nation are the forces that would dis- 
integrate it and with which it wages a perpetual 
conflict. Communism seeks social perfection in 
a common interest in all property, persons, and 
things ; it destroys the family and private property,, 
it attacks the foundations of modern society. So- 
cialism seeks to wipe out all laws, manners, cus- 
toms, the guarantees of property and person, and to 
reorganize society on a different basis. The reforms 
suggested have been dictated by every fancy, and 



64 ELEMENTS OF CIVII, GOVERNMENT. 

have been usually absurd and destructive of all civil 
government. Nihilism is a negation of all govern- 
ment. It seeks to overthrow all existing forms, by- 
assassination, dynamite, and the like revolutionary 
measures. Anarchism, like nihilism, is a form of 
lawlessness that would overturn all the laws of or- 
ganized society, destroy the home, the church, the 
school, — everything that is dear to liberty-loving 
and industrious people. Societies and individuals, 
holding and teaching these destructive ideas, have 
caused riot and bloodshed in our own country. 

We harbor foreigners who hold these ideas which 
are at war with those that lie at the very foundation 
of our free government. It is the duty of the Ameri- 
can citizen to know his rights and to perform his 
duty ; to eradicate by lawful means all influences in- 
jurious to the peace and welfare of his native land. 

Centuries pass; new faces come and go; new voices 
are heard over the earth ; other hands labor, and 
other men enter into their labors with the glory of 
new duties and the enthusiasm of the exercise of 
new rights. A pure morality, a lofty statesmanship, 
devotion among the people to the rights and duties 
of citizenship, alone keep the nation from decay. 
Invention and discovery ameliorate the condition of 
men. Science and art enlarge the bounds of human 
knowledge, but the nation alone can carry on the 
work of history. Our flag is the symbol of the na- 
tion. To an American it is an object of veneration, 
to the people of other lands it is the symbol of lib- 



THE NATION. 65 

erty, union, peace, happiness, and prosperity. 
Wherever the flag floats the voice of the nation is 
heard. The honor of the nation is the honor of its 
flag. To the people of the United States are in- 
trusted sacred interests. Every citizen is the keeper 
in trust of the happiness of himself and those who 
will come after him. This people is to work out the 
realization of human rights, industrially, politi- 
cally, socially, and morally. It is for us to realize 
the hopes of humanity, to be the answer to the 
prayers of the ages. 

Popular government is the great experiment of 
history. We cannot turn back. We are one of an 
argosy of nations moving onward, toward the free- 
dom of humanity. 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 



IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776. 

The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen 
United States of America. 

When, in the course of human events, it becomes 
necessary for one people to dissolve the political 
bands which have connected them with one another, 
and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the 
separate and equal station to which the laws of 
nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent 
respect to the opinions of mankind requires that 
they should declare the causes which impel them to 
the separation. 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all 
men are created equal ; that they are endowed by 
their Creator with certain unalienable rights ; that 
among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of hap- 
piness. That, to secure these rights, governments 
are instituted among men, deriving their just powers 
from the consent of the governed ; that whenever 
any form of government becomes destructive of 
these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or 
abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying 
its foundations on such principles, and organizing 
its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most 
likely to effect their safety and happiness. Pru- 
dence, indeed, will dictate that governments long 

66 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 6 J 

established should not be changed for light and 
transient causes ; and accordingly, all experience 
hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to 
suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right them- 
selves by abolishing the forms to which they are ac- 
customed. But, when a long train of abuses and 
usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, 
evinces a design to reduce them under absolute des- 
potism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off 
such government, and to provide new guards for 
their future security. Such has been the patient 
sufferance of these colonies, and such is now the 
necessity which constrains them to alter their 
former systems of government. The history of the 
present king of Great Britain is a history of re- 
peated injuries and usurpations, all having, in direct 
object, the establishment of an absolute tyranny over 
these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted 
to a candid world : 

He has refused his assent to laws the most whole- 
some and necessary for the public good. 

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of im- 
mediate and pressing importance, unless suspended 
in their operations till his assent should be ob- 
tained ; and when so suspended, he has utterly neg- 
lected to attend to them. 

He has refused to pass other laws for the accom- 
modation of large districts of people, unless those 
people would relinquish the right of representation 
in the legislature ; a right inestimable to them, and 
formidable to tyrants only. 

He has called together legislative bodies at places 
unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the reposi- 
tory of their public records, for the sole purpose of 
fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. 

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, 



68 ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on 
the rights of the people. 

He has refused, for a long time after such dissolu- 
tions, to cause others to be elected ; whereby the 
legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have 
returned to the people at large for their exercise ; the 
State remaining, in the meantime, exposed to all the 
dangers of invasions from without, and convulsions 
within. 

He has endeavored to prevent the population of 
these States ; for that purpose, obstructing the laws 
for the naturalization of foreigners , refusing to pass 
others to encourage their migration hither, and rais- 
ing the conditions of new appropriations of lands. 

He has obstructed the administration of justice, 
by refusing his assent to laws for establishing 
judiciary powers . 

He has made judges dependent on his will alone 
for the tenure of their offices and the amount and 
payment of their salaries. 

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent 
hither swarms of officers to harass our people and 
eat their substance. 

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing 
armies, without the consent of our legislatures. 

He has affected to render the military independent 
of, and superior to, the civil power. 

He has combined, with others, to subject us to a 
jurisdiction foreign to our constitutions, and unac- 
knowledged by our laws ; giving his assent to their 
acts of pretended legislation : 

For quartering large bodies of armed troops 
among us : 

For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punish- 
ment, for any murders which they should commit on 
the inhabitants of these States : 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 69 

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the 
world : 

For imposing taxes on us without our consent : 

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefit of 
trial by jury : 

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for 
pretended offenses : 

For abolishing the free system of English laws in 
a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbi- 
trary government, and enlarging its boundries, so as 
to render it at once an example and fit instrument 
for introducing the same absolute rule into these 
colonies : 

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most 
valuable laws, and altering, fundamentally, the forms 
of our governments : 

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring 
themselves invested with power to legislate for us in 
all cases whatsoever : 

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us 
out of his protection, and waging war against us. 

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, 
burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our 
people. 

He is, at this time, transporting large armies of 
foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, 
desolation, and tyranny already begun, with circum- 
stances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in 
the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the 
head of a civilized nation. 

He has constrained our fellow- citizens, taken cap- 
tive on the high seas, to bear arms against their 
country, to become the executioners of their friends 
and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. 

He has excited domestic insurrection among us, 
and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of 



70 ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose 
known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruc- 
tion of all ages, sexes, and conditions. 

In every stage of these oppressions, we have peti- 
tioned for redress, in the most humble terms; our re- 
peated petitions have been answered only by repeated 
injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked 
by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to 
be the ruler of a free people. 

Nor have we been wanting in our attentions to our 
British brethren. We have warned them, from time 
to time, of attempts by their legislature to extend an 
unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have re- 
minded them of the circumstances of our emigration 
and settlement here. We have appealed to their na- 
tive justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured 
them, by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow 
these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt 
our connections and correspondence. They, too, 
have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consan- 
guinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the ne- 
cessity, which denounces our separation, and hold 
them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in 
war, in peace, friends. 

We, therefore, the representatives of the UNITED 
STATES OF AMERICA, IN GENERAL CON- 
GRESS assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge 
of the World for the rectitude of our intentions, do, 
in the name, and by the authority of the good people 
of these colonies, solemly publish and declare, That 
these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, 
FREE and independent states; that they are ab- 
solved from all allegiance to the British crown, and 
that all political connection between them and the 
State of Great Britain, is, and ought to be, totally 
dissolved; and that as FREE AND INDEPEND- 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 



71 



ENT ST A TES> they have full power to levy war, 
conclude peace, contract alliances, establish com- 
merce, and do all other acts and things which IN- 
DEPENDENT STATES may of right do. And, 
for the support of this declaration, with a firm reli- 
ance on the protection of DIVINE PROVIDENCE, 
we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our for- 
tunes, and our sacred honor. 



SIGNERS 



New Hampshire. 
Josiah Bartlett. 
William Whipple. 
Matthew Thornton. 

Massachusetts. 
John Hancock. 
John Adams. 
Samuel Adams. 
.Robert Treat Paine. 
Elbridge Gerry. 

Rhode Island. 
Stephen Hopkins. 
William Ellery. 

Connecticut. 
Roger Sherman. 
Samuel Huntington. 
William Williams. 
Oliver Wolcott. 

New York. 
William Floyd. 
Philip Livingston. 
Francis Lewis. 
Lewis Morris. 

New Jersey. 
Richard Stockton. 
John Witherspoon. 
Francis Hopkinson. 
John Hart. 
Abraham Clark. 

Pennsylvania. 
Robert Morris. 
Benjamin Rush. 
Benjamin Franklin. 
John Morton. 
George Clymer. 



James Smith. 
George Taylor. 
James Wilson. 
George Ross. 
Delaware. 
Ceesar Rodney. 
George Read. 
Thomas McKean. 

Maryland. 
Samuel Chase. 
Thomas Stone. 
William Paca. 
Charles Carroll, of Carrollton. 

Virginia. 
George Wythe. 
Richard Henry Lee. 
Thomas Jefferson. 
Benjamin Harrison. 
Thomas Xelson, Jr. 
Francis Lightfoot Lee. 
Carter Braxton. 

North Carolina. 
William Hooper. 
Joseph Hewes. 
John Penn. 

South Carolina. 
Edward Rutledge. 
Thomas Heyward, Jr. 
Thomas Lynch, Jr. 
Arthur Middleton. 

Georgia. 
Button Gwinnett. 
Lyman Hall. 
George Walton. 



ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 



Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union be- 
tween the States of New Hampshire, Massachu- 
setts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Planta- 
tions, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Penn- 
sylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North 
Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia : 
Article I. — The style of this confederacy shall 
be, " The United States of America. " 

Art. II. — Each State retains its sovereignty, free- 
dom, and independence, and every power, jurisdic- 
tion, and right, which is not by this confederation 
expressly delegated to the United States in Congress 
assembled. 

Art. III. — The said States hereby severally enter 
into a firm league of friendship with each other, for 
their common defense, the securitiy of their liberties, 
and their mutual and general welfare, binding them- 
selves to assist each other against all force offered to, 
or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on ac- 
count of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other 
pretense whatever. 

Art. IV. — The better to secure and perpetuate 
mutual friendship and intercourse among the people 
of the different States in this Union, the free inhabi- 
tants of each of these States, paupers, vagabonds, 
and fugitives from justice excepted, shall be entitled 
to all privileges and immunities of free citizens in 
the several States, and the people of each State shall 
have free ingress and egress to and from any other 
State, and shall enjoy therein all the privileges of 

72 



ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 73 

trade and commerce, subject to the same duties, im- 
positions, and restrictions, as the inhabitants thereof 
respectively: Provided, That such restrictions shall 
not extend so far as to prevent the removal of prop- 
erty imported into any State to any other State of 
which the owner is an inhabitant: Provided, also, 
That no imposition, duties, or restrictions shall be 
laid by any State on the property of the United 
States or either of them. 

If any person guilty of, or charged with, treason, 
felony, or other high misdemeanor in any State, 
shall flee from justice, and be found in any of the 
United States, he shall, upon demand of the gov- 
ernor, or executive power of the State from which he 
fled, be delivered up, and removed to the State hav- 
ing jurisdiction of his offense. Full faith and credit 
shall be given, in each of these States, to the records, 
acts, and judicial proceedings of the courts and mag- 
istrates of every other State. 

Art. V. — For the more convenient management 
of the general interests of the United States, dele- 
gates shall be annually appointed, in such man- 
ner as the legislature of each State shall direct, 
to meet in Congress on the first Monday in Novem- 
ber, in every year, with a power reserved to each 
State to recall its delegates, or any of them, at any 
time within the year, and to send others in their 
stead for the remainder of the year. 

No State shall be represented in Congress by less 
than two, nor by more than seven members ; and no 
person shall be capable of being a delegate for more 
than three years in any term of six years ; nor shall 
any person, being a delegate, be capable of holding 
any office under the United States for which he, or 
another for his benefit, receives any salary, fees, 
or emolument of any kind. 



74 ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

Each State shall maintain its own delegates in any 
meeting of the States and while they act as members 
of the committee of the States. 

In determining questions in the United States in 
Congress assembled, each State shall have one vote. 

Freedom of speech and debate in Congress shall not 
be impeached or questioned in any court or place out 
of Congress; and the members of Congress shall be 
protected in their persons from arrests and imprison- 
ments during the time of their going to and from, 
and attendance on Congress, except for treason, fel- 
ony, or breach of peace. 

Art. VI.— -No State, without the consent of the 
United States, in Congress assembled, shall send 
any embassy to, or receive any embassy from, or 
enter into any conference, agreement, alliance, or 
treaty, with any king, prince, or State; nor shall any 
person holding any office of profit or trust under the 
United States, or any of them, accept of any present, 
emolument, office, or title of any kind whatever, 
from any king, prince, or foreign State; nor shall the 
United States, in Congress assembled, or any of 
them, grant any title of nobility. 

No two or more States shall enter into any treaty, 
confederation, or alliance whatever between them, 
without the consent of the United States, in Con- 
gress assembled, specifying accurately the purpose 
for which the same is to be entered into, and how 
long it shall continue. 

No State shall lay any imposts or duties which 
may interfere with any stipulations in treaties en- 
tered into by the United States, in Congress assem- 
bled, with any king, prince, or State, in pursuance 
of any treaties already proposed by Congress to the 
courts of France and Spain. 

No vessels of war shall be kept up in time of peace, 



ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 75 

by any State, except such number only as, in the 
judgment of the United States, in Congress assem- 
bled, shall be deemed requisite to garrison the forts 
necessary for the defense of such State: but every 
State shall always keep up a well-regulated and dis- 
ciplined militia, sufficiently armed and accoutered, 
and shall provide and constantly have ready for use, 
in public stores, a due number of field-pieces and 
tents, and a proper quantity of arms, ammunition, 
and camp equipage. 

No State shall engage in any war without the con- 
sent of the United States, in Congress assembled, 
unless such State is actually invaded by enemies, or 
shall have received certain advice of a resolution be- 
ing formed by some nation of Indians to invade such 
State, and the danger is so immediate as not to ad- 
mit of a delay till the United States, in Congress 
assembled, can be consulted ; nor shall any State 
grant commissions to any ships or vessels of war, nor 
letters of marque or reprisal except it be after a dec- 
laration of war by the United States, in Congress 
assembled, and then only against the kingdom or 
state, and the subjects thereof against which war has 
been so declared, and under such regulations as 
shall be established by the United States, in Con- 
gress assembled, unless such State be infested 
by pirates, in which case vessels of war may be 
fitted out for that occasion, and kept so long as the 
danger shall continue, or until the United States, in 
Congress assembled, shall determine otherwise. 

Art. VII. — When land forces are raised by any 
State for the common defense, all officers of or under 
rank of colonel, shall be appointed by the legisla- 
ture of each State respectively by whom such 
forces shall be raised, or in such manner as such 
State shall direct, and all vacancies shall be filled 



76 ELEMENTS OF CIVII* GOVERNMENT. 

up by the State which, first made the appointment. 

Art. VIII. — All charges of war, and all other ex- 
penses that shall be incurred for the common defense 
or general welfare, and allowed by the United States, 
in Congress assembled, shall be defrayed out of a 
common treasury, which shall be supplied by the 
several States, in proportion to the value of all land 
within each State, granted to, or surveyed for, any 
person, as such land and the buildings and improve- 
ments thereon shall be estimated according to such 
mode as the United States, in Congress assembled, 
shall, from time to time, direct and appoint. The 
taxes for paying that proportion shall be laid and 
levied by the authority and direction of the legisla- 
tures of the several States, within the time agreed 
upon by the United States in Congress assembled. 

Art. IX. — The United States, in Congress assem- 
bled, shall have the sole and exclusive right and 
power of determining on peace and war except in 
the cases mentioned in the sixth Article ; of sending 
and receiving ambassadors ; entering into treaties 
and alliances, provided that no treaty of commerce 
shall be made whereby the legislative power of the 
respective States shall be restrained from imposing 
such imposts and duties on foreigners as their own 
people are subjected to, or from prohibiting the ex- 
portation or importation of any species of goods or 
commodities whatsoever ; of establishing rules for 
deciding, in all cases, what captures on land or 
water shall be legal, and in what manner prizes 
taken by land or naval forces in the service of the 
United States shall be divided or appropriated ; of 
granting letters of marque and reprisal in times of 
peace ; appointing courts for the trial of piracies and 
felonies committed on the high seas ; and establish- 
ing courts for receiving and determining finally ap- 



ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. JJ 

peals in all cases of captures : Provided, That no 
member of Congress shall be appointed a judge of 
any of the said courts. 

The United States, in Congress assembled, shall 
be the last resort on appeal in all disputes and differ- 
ences subsisting, or that hereafter may arise be- 
tween two or more States concerning boundary, 
jurisdiction, or any other cause whatever ; which 
authority shall always be exercised in the manner 
following : Whenever the legislative or executive 
authority, or lawful agent of any State in contro- 
versy with another, shall present a petition to Con- 
gress stating the matter in question and praying for 
a hearing, notice thereof shall be given by order of 
Congress, to the legislative or executive authority of 
the other States in controversy, and a day assigned 
for the appearance of the parties by their lawful 
agents, who shall then be directed to appoint by 
joint consent, commissioners or judges to constitute 
a court for hearing and determining the matter in 
question ; but if they can not agree, Congress shall 
name three persons, out of each of the United States, 
and from the list of such persons each party shall 
alternately strike out one, the petitioners beginning, 
until the numbers shall be reduced to thirteen ; and 
from that number not less than seven nor more than 
nine names, as Congress shall direct, shall, in the 
presence of Congress, be drawn out by lot; and the 
persons whose names shall be so drawn, or any five 
of them, shall be commissioners or judges to hear 
and finally determine the controversy, so always as 
a major part of the judges who shall hear the cause 
shall agree in the determination ; and if either party 
shall neglect to attend at the day appointed, without 
showing reasons which Congress shall judge suffi- 
cient, or, being present, shall refuse to strike, the 



78 ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

Congress shall proceed to nominate three persons 
out of each State, and the secretary of Congress shall 
strike in behalf of such party absent or refusing, and 
the judgment and sentence of the court, to be ap- 
pointed in the manner before prescribed, shall be 
final and conclusive; and if any of the parties shall 
refuse to submit to the authority of such court, 
or to appear or defend their claim or cause, the 
court shall nevertheless proceed to pronounce sen- 
tence or judgment, which shall in like manner be 
final and decisive; the judgment or sentence and 
other proceedings being in either case transmitted to 
Congress, and lodged among the acts of Congress 
for the security of the parties concerned; provided 
that every commissioner, before he sits in judgment, 
shall take an oath, to be administered by one of the 
judges of the Supreme or Superior Court of the State 
where the cause shall be tried, "well and truly to 
hear and determine the matter in question, according 
to the best of his judgment, without favor, affection, 
or hope of reward:" Provided \ also, That no State 
shall be deprived of territory for the benefit of the 
United States. 

All controversies concerning the private right of 
soil claimed under different grants of two or more 
States, whose jurisdiction, as they may respect such 
lands, and the States which passed such grants are 
adjusted, the said grants or either of them being at 
the same time claimed to have originated antecedent 
to such settlement of jurisdiction, shall, on the peti- 
tion of either party to Congress of the United States, 
be finally determined, as near as may be, in the 
same manner as is before prescribed for deciding dis- 
putes respecting territorial jurisdiction between dif- 
ferent States. 

The United States, in Congress assembled, shall 



ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 79 

also have the sole and exclusive right and power of 
regulating the alloy and value of coin struck by their 
own authority or by that of the respective States; 
fixing the standard of weights and measures through- 
out the United States; regulating the trade and 
managing all affairs with Indians, not members 
of any of the States, provided that the legislative 
rights of any State, within its own limits, be not in- 
fringed or violated; establishing and regulating post- 
offices from one State to another throughout all the 
United States, and exacting such postage on the 
papers passing through the same, as may be requi- 
site to defray the expense of the said office ; appoint- 
ing all officers of the land forces in the service of the 
United States, excepting regimental officers; appoint- 
ing all the officers of the naval forces, and commis- 
sioning all officers whatever in the service of the 
United States; making rules for the government and 
regulation of the said land and naval forces, and di- 
recting their operations. 

The United States, in Congress assembled, shall 
have authority to appoint a committee, to sit in the 
recess of Congress, to be denominated " A Commit- 
tee of the States," and to consist of one delegate 
from each State : and to appoint such other commit- 
tees and civil officers as may be necessary for man- 
aging the general affairs of the United States under 
their direction; to appoint one of their number to 
preside, provided that no person be allowed to serve 
in office of president more than one year in any 
term of three years; to ascertain the necessary sums 
of money to be raised for the service of the United 
States, and to appropriate and apply the same for 
defraying the public expenses; to borrow money or 
emit bills on the credit of the United States, trans- 
mitting every half year to the respective States an 



80 ELEMENTS OF CIVII, GOVERNMENT. 

account of the sums of money so borrowed or emit- 
ted; to build and equip a navy; to agree upon the 
number of land forces, and to make requisitions from 
^ach State for its quota, in proportion to the num- 
ber of white inhabitants m such State, which requi- 
sition shall be binding; and thereupon the legis- 
lature of each State shall appoint the regimental 
officers, raise the men, and clothe, arm, and equip 
them in a soldier-like manner at the expense of the 
United States; and the officers and men so clothed, 
armed, and equipped shall march to the place ap- 
pointed, and within the time agreed on by the United 
States, in Congress assembled; but if the United 
States, in Congress assembled, shall, in considera- 
tion of circumstances, judge proper that any State 
should not raise men, or should raise a smaller num- 
ber than its quota, and that any other State should 
raise a greater number of men than the quota thereof, 
such extra number shall be raised, officered, clothed, 
armed, and equipped in the same manner as the 
quota of such State, unless the legislature of such 
State shall judge that such extra number cannot be 
safely spared out of the same, in which case they 
shall raise, officer, clothe, arm, and equip as many 
of such extra number as they judge can be safely 
spared, and the officers and men so clothed, armed, 
and equipped shall march to the place appointed, 
and within the time agreed on by the United States, 
in Congress assembled. 

The United States, in Congress assembled, shall 
never engage in a war nor grant letters of marque 
and reprisal in time of peace, nor enter into any 
treaties or alliances, nor coin money, nor regulate the 
value thereof, nor ascertain the sums and expenses 
necessary for the defense and welfare of the United 
States, or any of them, nor emit bills, nor borrow 



ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 82 

money on the credit of the United States, nor ap- 
propriate money, nor agree upon the number of 
vessels of war to be built or purchased, or the num- 
ber of land or sea forces to be raised, nor appoint a 
commander-in-chief of the army or navy, unless 
nine States assent to the same, nor shall a question 
on any other point, except for adjourning from day 
to day, be determined, unless by the votes of a ma- 
jority of the United States, in Congress assembled. 

The Congress of the United States shall have 
power to adjourn to any time within the, year, and to 
any place within the United States, so that no 
period of adjournment be for a longer duration than 
the space of six months, and shall publish the 
journal of their proceedings monthly, except such 
parts thereof relating to treaties, alliances or mili- 
tary operations as in their judgment require secrecy; 
and the yeas and nays of the delegates of each State, 
on any question, shall be entered on the journal, 
when it is desired by any delegate ; and the dele- 
gates of a State, or any of them, at his or their 
request, shall be furnished with a transcript of the 
said journal, except such parts as are above ex- 
cepted, to lay before the legislatures of the several 
States. 

Art. X. — The committee of the States, or any 
nine of them, shall be authorized to execute, in the 
recess of Congress, such of the powers of Congress 
as the United States, in Congress assembled, by the 
consent of nine States, shall from time to time, 
think expedient to vest them with, provided that no 
power be delegated to the said committee, for the 
exercise of which, by the articles of the confedera- 
tion, the voice of nine States, in the Congress of 
the United States assembled, is requisite. 

Art. XI. — Canada acceding to this confederation 



82 ELEMENTS OF CIVII, GOVERNMENT. 

and joining in the measures of the United States, 
shall be admitted into, and entitled to all the advan- 
tages of this Union ; but no other colony shall be 
admitted into the same unless such admission be 
agreed to by nine States. 

Art. XII. — All bills of credit emitted, moneys 
borrowed and debts contracted by or under the 
authority of Congress, before the assembling of the 
United States, in pursuance of the present confeder- 
ation, shall be deemed and considered as a charge 
against the United States, for payment and satisfac- 
tion whereof the said United States and the public 
faith are hereby solemnly pledged. 

Art. XIII.— Every State shall abide by the deter- 
minations of the United States, in Congress assem- 
bled, on all questions which by this Confederation 
are submitted to them. And the Articles of this 
Confederation shall be inviolably observed by every 
State ; and the Union shall be perpetual ; nor shall 
any alteration at any time hereafter be made in any 
of them, unless such alteration be agreed to in a 
Congress of the United States ; and be afterwards 
confirmed by the legislature of every State. 

And whereas it hath pleased the great Governor of 
the world to incline the hearts of the legislatures 
we respectively represent in Congress, to approve of, 
and to authorize us to ratify the said Articles of 
Confederation and perpetual Union, know ye, that 
we, the undersigned delegates, by virtue of the 
power and authority to us given for that purpose, 
do, by these presents, in the name and in behalf of 
our respective constituents, fully and entirely ratify 
and confirm each and every one of the said Articles 
of Confederation and perpetual Union, and all and 
singular the matters and things therein contained : 
and we do further solemnly plight and engage the 



ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 83 

faith of our respective constituents, that they shall 
abide by the determinations of the United States, in 
Congress assembled, on all questions which by the 
said Confederation are submitted to them ; and that 
the articles thereof shall be inviolably observed by 
the States we respectively represent, and that the 
Union shall be perpetual. 

In witness whereof we have hereunto set our 
hands in Congress. Done at Philadelphia, in the 
State of Pennsyvania, the ninth day of July, in the 
year of our Lord, 1778, and in the third year of the 
Independence of America. 

• 



PART OF THE ORDINANCE OF 1787. 

JULY 13, 1787. 

An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory 
of the United States Northwest of the River Ohio. 

It is hereby ordained and declared, by the authority 
aforesaid, that the following Articles shall be con- 
sidered as Articles of Compact between the original 
States and the people and States in the said Terri- 
tory, and forever remain unalterable, unless by com- 
mon consent, to-wit: 

Article I. — No person demeaning himself in a 
peaceable and orderly manner, shall ever be mo- 
lested on account of his mode of worship or religious 
sentiments in the said Territory. 

Art. II. — The inhabitants of the said Territory 
shall always be entitled to the benefit of the writ of 
habeas corpus, and of trial by jury; of a proportionate 
representation of the people in the legislature, and 
of judicial proceedings according to the course of 
the common law. All persons shall be bailable un- 
less for capital offenses, where the proof shall be 
evident or the presumption great. All fines shall 
be moderate, and no cruel or unusual punishments 
shall be inflicted. No man shall be deprived of his 
liberty or propery, but by the judgment of his peers, 
or the law of the land; and should the public exi- 
gencies make it necessary for the common preserva- 
tion to take any person's property, or to demand his 
particular services, full compensation shall be made 
for the same, and in the just preservation of rights 

84 



PART OF THE ORDINANCE OF 1 787. 85 

and property, it is understood and declared, that no 
law ought ever to be made, or have force in the said 
Territory, that shall in any manner whatever inter- 
fere with, or affect private contracts or engagements, 
bona fide and without fraud previously formed. 

Art. III. — Religion, morality, and knowledge be- 
ing necessary to good government and the happi- 
ness of mankind, schools, and the means of educa- 
tion, shall forever be encouraged. The utmost good 
faith shall always be observed toward the Indians; 
their lands and property shall never be taken from 
them without their consent; and in their property, 
rights, and liberty they shall never be invaded or 
disturbed, unless in just and lawful wars authorized 
by Congress; but laws founded in justice and hu- 
manity, shall, from time to time, be made, for 
preventing wrongs being done to them, and for pre- 
serving peace and friendship with them. 

Art. IV.— The said Territory and the States 
which may be formed therein, shall forever remain a 
part of this confederacy of the United States of 
America, subject to the Articles of Confederation, 
and to such alteration therein, as shall be constitu- 
tionally made; and to all the acts and ordinances of 
the United States, in Congress assembled, conform- 
able thereto. The inhabitants and settlers in the 
said Territory shall be subject to pay a part of the 
federal debts contracted, or to be contracted, and a 
proportional part of the expenses of government, to 
be apportioned on them, by Congress, according to 
the same common rule and measure by which ap- 
portionments thereof shall be made on the other 
States; and the taxes for paying their proportion 
shall be laid and levied by the authority and direc- 
tion of the legislatures of the district or districts, or 
new States, as in the original States, within the 



86 ELEMENTS OF CIVII, GOVERNMENT. 

time agreed upon by the United States, in Congress 
assembled. The legislatures of those districts or 
new States, shall never interfere with the pri- 
mary disposal of the soil by the United States, in 
Congress assembled, nor with any regulations Con- 
gress may find necessary for securing the title in 
such soil to the bona fide purchasers. No tax shall 
be imposed on lands the property of the United 
States; and in no case shall non-residents be taxed 
higher than residents. The navigable waters lead- 
ing into the Mississippi and St. Lawrence, and the 
carrying places between the same, shall be common 
highways, and forever free, as well as to the inhabi- 
tants of the said Territory, as to the citizens of the 
United States, and those of any other States that 
may be admitted into the confederacy, without any 
tax, impost, or duty therefor. 

Art. V. — There shall be formed in the said Terri- 
tory not less than three, nor more than five States ; 
and the boundaries of the States, as soon as Virginia 
shall alter her act of ^session and consent to the 
same, shall become fixed and established as follows, 
to-wit : The western State in the said Territory 
shall be bounded by the Mississippi, the Ohio, and 
the Wabash rivers ; a direct line drawn, from the 
Wabash and Post Vincents due north to the territo- 
rial line between the United States and Canada, and 
by the said territorial line to the Lake of the Woods 
and Mississippi. The middle State shall be bounded 
by the said direct line, the Wabash from Post Vin- 
cents to the Ohio, by the Ohio, by a direct line 
drawn due north from the mouth of the Great 
Miami to the said territorial line, and by said ter- 
ritorial line. The eastern State shall be bounded 
by the last mentioned direct line, the Ohio, Penn- 
sylvania, and the said territorial line : Provided, 



PART OF THE ORDINANCE OF 1 787. Sj 

however, and it is further understood and declared, 
that the boundaries of these three States shall 
be subject so far to be altered that if Congress 
shall hereafter find it expedient, they shall have 
authority to form one or two States in that part of 
the said territory which lies north of an east and 
west line drawn through the southerly bend or ex- 
treme of Lake Michigan. And whenever any of the 
said States shall have sixty thousand free inhabit- 
ants therein, such State shall be admitted by its 
delegates, into the Congress of the United States, on 
an equal footing with the original States, in all 
respects whatsoever ; and shall be at liberty to form 
a permanent constitution and State government : 
Provided, the constitution and government so to be 
formed shall be republican, and in conformity to the 
principles contained in these articles ; and, so far as 
it can be consistent with the general interest of the 
confederacy such admission shall be allowed at an 
earlier period, and when there may be a less number 
of free inhabitants in the State than sixty thousand. 
Art. VI. — Their shall be neither slavery nor in- 
voluntary servitude in the said Territory, otherwise 
than in the punishment of crimes whereof the party 
shall have been duly convicted : Provided, always, 
That any person escaping into the same, from whom 
labor or sen-ice is lawfully claimed in any one of the 
original States, such fugitive may be lawfully re- 
claimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or 
her labor or service as aforesaid. Be it ordained, by 
the authority aforesaid, that the resolutions of the 
23rd of April, 1784, relative to the subject of this or- 
dinance, be, and the same are hereby repealed. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED 
STATES. 

[This Constitution went into operation on the first Wednesday 
in March, 1789. 5 Wheat., 420.] 

We, the people of the United States, in order to 
form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure 
domestic tranquility, provide for the common de- 
fense, promote the general welfare, and secure the 
blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, 
do ordain and establish this Constitution of United 
States of America. 

Article I. 

Section I. All legislative powers herein granted, 
shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, 
which shall consist of a Senate, and House of Rep- 
resentatives. 

Skc. II. (Clause i.) The House of Representa- 
tives shall be composed of members chosen every 
second year by the people of the several States, and 
the electors in each State shall have the qualifica- 
tions requisite for electors of the most numerous 
branch of the State legislature. 

(Clause 2.) No person shall be a representative 
who shall not have attained to the age of twenty-five 
years, and been seven years a citizen of the United 
States, and who shall not when elected, be an inhab- 
itant of that State in which he shall be chosen. 

(Clause 3.) Representatives and direct taxes shall 
be apportioned among the several States which may 
be included within this Union, according to their 



CONSTITUTION OF THE; UNITED STATES. 89 

respective numbers, which shall be determined by 
adding to the whole number of free persons, includ- 
ing those bound to service for a term of years, and 
excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all 
other persons. The actual enumeration shall be 
made within three years after the first meeting of 
the Congress of the United States, and within every 
subsequent term of ten years, in such manner 
as they shall by law direct. The number of rep- 
resentatives shall not exceed one for every thirty 
thousand, but each State shall have at least one rep- 
resentative; and until such enumeration shall be 
made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled 
to choose three; Massachusetts, eight; Rhode Island 
and Providence Plantations, one; Connecticut, five; 
New York, six; New Jersey, four; Pennsylvania, 
eight; Delaware, one; Maryland, six; Virginia, ten; 
North Carolina, five; South Carolina, five; and 
Georgia, three. 

(Clause 4.) When vacancies happen in the repre- 
sentation from any State, the executive authority 
thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such va- 
cancies. 

(Clause 5.) The House of Representatives shall 
choose their speaker and other officers and shall have 
the sole power of impeachment. 

Sec. III. (Clause i.) The Senate of the United 
States shall be composed of two senators from each 
State, chosen by the legislatures thereof, for six 
years; and each senator shall have one vote. 

(Clause 2.) Immediately after they shall be assem- 
bled in consequence of the first election, they shall be 
divided as equally as may be into three classes. 
The seats of the senators of the first class shall 
be vacated at the expiration of the second year, 
of the second class, at the expiration of the fourth 



90 ELEMENTS OF CIVII, GOVERNMENT. 

year, and of the third class, at the expiration 
of the sixth year, so that one third may be chosen 
every second year; and if vacancies happen by resig- 
nation, or otherwise, during the recess of the legisla- 
ture of any State, the executive thereof may make 
temporary appointments until the next meeting of 
the legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies. 

(Clause 3.) No person shall be a senator who shall 
not have attained to the age of thirty years, and been 
nine years a citizen of the United States, and who 
shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that 
State for which he shall be chosen. 

(Clause 4.) The Vice-President of the United States 
shall be president of the Senate, but shall have no 
vote, unless they be equally divided. 

(Clause 5.) The Senate shall choose their other 
officers, and also a president pro tempore ', in the 
absence of the Vice-President, or when he shall ex- 
ercise the office of President of the United States. 

(Clause 6.) The Senate shall have the sole power 
to try all impeachments ; when sitting for that pur- 
pose they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the 
President of the United States is tried, the Chief 
Justice shall preside ; and no person shall be con- 
victed without the concurrence of two thirds of the 
members present, 

(Clause 7.) Judgment in cases of impeachment 
shall not be extended further than to removal from 
office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any 
office of honor, trust, or profit, under the United 
States ; but the party convicted shall nevertheless be 
liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment, 
and punishment, according to law. 

Sec. IV. (Clause 1.) The times, places and manner 
of holding elections for senators and representatives 
shall be prescribed in each State by the legislature 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 9 1 

thereof; but the Congress may at any time, by law, 
make or alter such regulations, except as to the 
places of choosing senators. 

(Clause 2.) The Congress shall assemble at least 
once in every year, and such meeting shall be on the 
first Monday in December, unless they shall by law 
appoint a different day. 

Sec. V. (Clause i.) Each house shall be the judge 
of the elections, returns, and qualifications of its own 
members, and a majority of each shall constitute a 
quorum to do business ; but a smaller number may 
adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to 
compel the attendance of absent members, in such 
manner, and under such penalties, as each house 
may provide. 

(Clause 2.) Each house may determine the rules 
of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly 
behavior, and with the concurrence of two thirds ex- 
pel a member. 

(Clause 3.) Each house shall keep a journal of its 
proceedings, and from time to time publish the same 
excepting such parts as may in their judgment re- 
quire secrecy, and the yeas and nays of the members 
of either house on any question shall, at the desire 
of one fifth of those present, be entered on the 
journal. 

(Clause 4.) Neither house, during the session of 
Congress, shall, without the consent of the other, 
adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other 
place than that in which the two houses shall be 
sitting. 

Sec. VI. (Clause i.) The senators and representa- 
tives shall receive a compensation for their services, 
to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the treasury 
of the United States. They shall in all cases, except 
treason, felony, and breach of peace, be privileged 



92 ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

• 

from arrest during their attendance at the session of 
their respective houses, and in going to and return- 
ing from the same ; and for any speech or debate in 
either house, they shall not be questioned in any 
other place. 

(Clause 2.) No senator or representative shall, 
during the time for which he was elected, be ap- 
pointed to any civil office under the authority of the 
United States, which shall have been created, or the 
emoluments whereof shall have been increased, 
during such time ; and no person holding any office 
under the United States shall be a member of either 
house during his continuance in office. 

Sec. VII. (Clause i.) All bills for raising revenue 
shall originate in the House of Representatives ; but 
the Senate may propose or concur with amendments, 
as on other bills. 

(Clause 2.) Every bill which shall have passed 
the House oi Representatives and the Senate, shall, 
before it becomes a law, be presented to the Presi- 
dent of the United States ; if he approve, he shall 
sign it, but if not, he shall return it, with his ob- 
jections, to that house in which it shall have origin- 
ated, who shall enter the objections at large on their 
journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If, after such 
reconsideration, two thirds of that house shall agree 
to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the 
objections, to the other house, by which it shall 
likewise be reconsidered, and, if approved by two 
thirds of that house, it shall become a law. But 
in all such cases the votes of both houses shall be de- 
termined by yeas and nays, and the names of the 
persons voting for and against the bill shall be 
entered on the journal of each house, respectively. 
If any bill shall not be returned by the President 
within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 93 

have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, 
in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the 
Congress, by their adjournment, prevent its return, 
in which case it shall not be a law. 

(Clause 3.) Every order, resolution, or vote, to 
which the concurrence of the Senate and House of 
Representatives may be necessary (except on a case 
of adjournment), shall be presented to the President 
of the United States ; and before the same shall take 
effect shall be approved by him, or, being disap- 
proved by him, shall be repassed by two thirds of 
the Senate and House of Representatives, according 
to the rules and limitations prescribed in the case of 
a bill. 

Sec. VIII. (Clause i.) The Congress shall have 
power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and 
excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common 
defense and general welfare of the United States ; 
but all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform 
throughout the United States ; 

(Clause 2.) To borrow money on the credit of the 
United States ; 

(Clause 3.) To regulate commerce with foreign 
nations, and among the several States, and with the 
Indian tribes ; 

(Clause 4.) To establish a uniform rule of natural- 
ization, and uniform laws on the subject of bank- 
ruptcies, throughout the United States ; 

(Clause 5.) To coin money, regulate the value 
thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of 
weights and measures ; 

(Clause 6.) To provide for the punishment of coun- 
terfeiting the securities and current coin of the 
United States; 

(Clause 7.) To establish postomces and postroads; 

(Clause 8 ) To promote the progress of science and 



94 ELEMENTS OF CIVII, GOVERNMENT. 

useful arts, by securing, for limited times, to authors 
and inventors, the exclusive right to their respective 
writings and discoveries; 

(Clause 9.) To constitute tribunals inferior to the 
Supreme Court; 

(Clause 10.) To define and punish piracies and fel- 
onies committed on the high seas, and offenses 
against the law of nations ; 

(Clause 11.) To declare war, grant letters of marque 
and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on 
land and water; 

(Clause 12.) To raise and support armies; but no 
appropriation of money to that use shall be for a 
longer term than two years; 

(Clause 13.) To provide and maintain a navy; 

(Clause 14.) To make rules for the government and 
regulation of the land and naval forces; 

(Clause 15.) To provide for calling forth the militia 
to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrec- 
tions, and repel invasions; 

(Clause 16.) To provide for organizing, arming, 
and disciplining the militia, and for governing such 
part of them as may be employed in the service of 
the United States; reserving to the States respec- 
tively the appointment of the officers, and the au- 
thority of training the militia, according to the dis- 
cipline prescribed by Congress; 

(Clause 17.) To exercise exclusive legislation in all 
cases whatsoever, over such district (not exceeding 
ten miles square), as may, by cession of particular 
States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the 
seat of the government of the United States, and to ex- 
ercise like authority over all places, purchased by 
consent of the legislature of the State in which the 
same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, 
arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings; and, 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 95 

(Clause 18.) To make all laws which shall be nec- 
essary and proper for carrying into execution the 
foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this 
Constitution in the government of the United States, 
or in any department or officer thereof. 

Sec. IX. (Clause i.) The migration or importa- 
tion of such persons, as any of the States, now ex- 
isting, shall think proper to admit, shall not be pro- 
hibited by the Congress, prior to the year one thou- 
sand eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may 
be imposed on such importation, not exceeding ten 
dollars for each person. 

(Clause 2.) The privilege of the writ of habeas 
corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases 
of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may re- 
quire it. 

(Clause 3.) No bill of attainder, or ex post facto 
law, shall be passed. 

(Clause 4.) No capitation or other direct tax shall 
be laid, unless in proportion to the census or enumer- 
ation, hereinbefore directed to be taken. 

(Clause 5.) No tax or duty shall be laid on articles 
exported from any State. No preference shall be 
given by any regulation of commerce or revenue, to 
the ports of one State over those of another, nor shall 
vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to 
enter, clear, or pay duties, in another. 

(Clause 6.) No money shall be drawn from the 
Treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made 
by law ; and a regular statement and account of the 
receipts and expenditures of all public money shall 
be published, from time to time. 

(Clause 7.) No title of nobility shall be granted 
by the United States : and no person, holding any 
office of profit or trust under them, shall, without 
the consent of Congress, accept of any present, 



96 ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, 
from any king, prince, or foreign state. 

Sec. X. (Clause i.) No State shall enter into any 
treaty, alliance, or confederation ; grant letters of 
marque and reprisal ; coin money ; emit bills of 
credit ; make anything but gold and silver coin a 
tender in payment of debts ; pass any bill of attain- 
der, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation 
of contracts, or grant any title of nobility. 

(Clause 2.) No State shall, without the consent of 
the Congress, lay any imposts or duties on imports 
or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary 
for executing its inspection laws ; and the net pro- 
duce of all duties and imposts, laid by any State on 
imports or exports, shall be for the use of the Treas- 
ury of the United States ; and all such laws shall 
be subject to the revision and control of the Con- 
gress. 

(Clause 3.) No State shall, without the consent of 
Congress lay any duty of tonnage, keep troops, or 
ships of war, in time of peace, enter into any agree- 
ment or compact with another State, or with a 
foreign power, or engage in war, unless actually 
invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not 
admit of delay. 

Article II. 

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT. 

Section I. (Clause 1.) The executive power shall 
be vested in a President of the United States of 
America. He shall hold his office during the term 
of four years, and, together with the Vice-President, 
chosen for the same term, be elected as follows : 

(Clause 2.) Each State shall appoint, in such man- 
ner as the legislature thereof may direct, a number 
of electors, equal to the whole number of senators 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 97 

and representatives to which the State may be en- 
titled in the Congress ; but no senator or representa- 
tive, or person holding an office of trust, or profit 
under the United States, shall be appointed an 
elector. 

^(Clause 3.) The electors shall meet in their re- 
spective States, and vote by ballot for two persons, 
of whom one, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of 
the same State with themselves. And they shall 
make a list of all the persons voted for and of the 
number of votes for each ; which list they sign and 
certify, and transmit, sealed, to the seat of the gov- 
ernment of the United States, directed to the Presi- 
dent of the Senate. The President of the Senate 
shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of 
Representatives, open the certificates, and the votes 
shall then be counted. The person having the great- 
est number of votes shall be the President, if such 
number be a majority of the whole number of elec- 
tors appointed ; and i«f there be more than one who 
have such a majority, and have an equal number of 
votes, then the House of Representatives shall im- 
mediately choose, by ballot, one of them, for Presi- 
dent ; and if no person have a majority, then, from 
the five highest on the list, the said house shall, 
in like manner, choose the President. But in 
choosing the President, the vote shall be taken by 
States, the representation from each State having 
one vote ; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of 
a number of members, from two thirds of the States, 
and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to 
a choice. In every case, after the choice of the Pres- 
ident, the person having the greatest number of 
votes of the electors shall be the Vice-President. 
But if there should remain two or more who have 

*This clause has been superceded by the Xllth Amendment. 



98 ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

equal votes, the Senate shall choose from them, by 
ballot, the Vice-President. 

(Clause 4.) The Congress may determine the time 
of choosing the electors, and the day on which they 
shall give their votes ; which day shall be the same 
throughout the United States. 

(Clause 5.) No person, except a natural-born citi- 
zen, or a citizen of the United States at the time of 
the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to 
the office of President ; neither shall any person be 
eligible to that office who shall not have attained to 
the age of thirty -five years, and been fourteen years 
a resident within the United States. 

(Clause 6.) In case of the removal of the President 
from office, or of his death, resignation, or inability 
to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, 
the same shall devolve on the Vice-President, and 
the Congress may by law provide for the case of re- 
moval, death, resignation, or inability both of the 
President and Vice-President, declaring what officer 
shall then act as President; and such officer shall act 
accordingly, until the disability be removed or a 
President shall be elected. 

(Clause 7.) The President shall, at stated times, 
receive for his service, a compensation which shall 
neither be increased nor diminished during the 
period for which he shall have been elected, and he 
shall not receive within that period, any other emol- 
ument from the United States, or any of them. 

(Clause 8.) Before he enter on the execution of his 
office he shall take the following oath or affirmation : 
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully 
execute the office of President of the United States, 
and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, 
and defend the Constitution of the United States. 

Sec. II. (Clause 1.) The President shall be com- 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 99 

mander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United 
States, and of the militia of the several States, when 
called into the actual service of the United States; 
he may require the opinion, in writing, of the prin- 
cipal officer in each of the executive departments, 
upon any subject relating to the duties of their 
respective offices, and he shall have power to grant 
reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United 
States, except in cases of impeachment. 

(Clause 2.) He shall have power, by and with the 
advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, 
provided two thirds of the senators present concur, 
and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice 
and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassa- 
dors, other public ministers, and consuls, judges of 
the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the 
United States, whose appointments are not herein 
otherwise provided for, and which shall be estab- 
lished by law; but the Congress may by law vest the 
appointment of such inferior officers, as they think 
proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, 
or in the heads of departments. 

(Clause 3 .) The President shall have power to fill 
up all vacancies that may happen during the recess 
of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall 
expire at the end of their next session. 

Sec. III. He shall, from time to time, give 
to the Congress information of the state of the 
Union, and recommend to their consideration such 
measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; 
he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both 
houses, or either of them, and in case of disagree- 
ment between them with respect to the time of ad- 
journment, he may adjourn them to such time as he 
shall think proper; he shall receive ambassadors and 
other public ministers; he shall take care that the 



IOO ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission 
all the officers in the United States. 

Sec. IV. The President, Vice-President, and all 
civil officers of the United States, shall be removed 
from office, on impeachment for, and conviction of, 
treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misde- 
meanors. 

Article III. 

JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT. 

Section I. The judicial power of the United 
States shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in 
such inferior courts as the Congress may, from time 
to time, ordain and establish. The judges, both of 
the Supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their 
offices during good behavior, and shall, at stated 
times, receive for their services, a compensation 
which shall not be diminished during their contin- 
uance in office. 

Sec. II. (Clause i.) The judicial power shall ex- 
tend to all cases in law and equity arising under this 
Constitution, the laws of the United States, and 
treaties made, or which shall be made, under their 
authority; to all cases affecting ambassadors, other 
public ministers, and consuls; to all cases of ad- 
miralty and maritime jurisdiction ; to controversies 
to which the United States shall be a party; to con- 
troversies between two or more States, between a 
State and citizens of another State, between citizens 
of different States, between citizens of the same 
State claiming lands under grants of different States, 
and between a State, or the citizens thereof, and for- 
eign States, citizens, or subjects. 

(Clause 2.) In all cases affecting ambassadors, 
other public ministers, and consuls, and those in 
which a State shall be a party, the Supreme Court 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 10 1 

shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases 
before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have ap- 
pellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with 
such exceptions, and under such regulations, as the 
Congress shall make. 

(Clause 3.) The trial of all crimes, except in cases 
of impeachment, shall be by jury; and such trial 
shall be held in the State where the said crimes shall 
have been committed; but when not committed 
within any State, the trial shall be at such place, or 
places, as the Congress may by law have directed. 

Sec. III. (Clause i.) Treason against the United 
States shall consist only in levying war against 
them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them 
aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of 
treason, unless on the testimony of two witnesses to 
the same overt act, or on confession in open court. 

(Clause 2.) The Congress shall have power to de- 
clare the punishment of treason, but no attainder of 
treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture, 
except during the life of the person attainted. 

Article IV. 

Section I. Full faith and credit shall be given 
in each State to the public acts, records, and judicial 
proceedings of every other State. And the Congress 
may, by general laws, prescribe the manner in which 
such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, 
and the effect thereof. 

Sec. II. (Clause i.) The citizens. of each State 
shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of 
citizens in the several states. 

(Clause 2.) A person charged in any State with 
treason, felony, or other crime, who shall flee from 
justice, and be found in another State, shall, on de- 
mand of the executive authority of the State from 



102 ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the 
State having jurisdiction of the crime. 

(Clause 3.) No person held to service or labor in 
one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into an- 
other, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation 
therein, be discharged from such service or labor, 
but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to 
whom such service or labor may be due. 

Sec. III. (Clause 1.) New States may be admit- 
ted by the Congress into this Union, but no new 
State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdic- 
tion of any other State; nor any State be formed by 
the junction of two or more States, or parts of States, 
without the consent of the legislatures of the States 
concerned, as well as of the Congress. 

(Clause 2.) The Congress shall have power to dis- 
pose of and make all needful rules and regulations 
respecting the territory, or other property, belong- 
ing to the United States; and nothing in this Consti- 
tution shall be so construed as to prejudice any 
claims of the United States, or of any particular 
State. 

Sec. IV. The United States shall guarantee to 
every State in this Union a republican form of gov- 
ernment, and shall protect each of them against in- 
vasion; and, on application of the legislature, or of 
the executive (when the legislature cannot be con- 
vened), against domestic violence. 

Article V. 

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses 
shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments 
to this Constitution, or on the application of the legis- 
latures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a 
convention for proposing amendments, which, in 
either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 103 

as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the 
legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or 
by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one 
or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by 
the Congress: Provided, that no Amendment, which 
may be made prior to the year one thousand eight 
hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the 
first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the 
first article, and that no State, without its consent, 
shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate. 

Article VI. 

(Clause 1.) All debts contracted, and engagements 
entered into, before the adoption of this Constitu- 
tion, shall be as valid against the United States, un- 
der this Constitution, as under the Confederation. 

(Clause 2.) This Constitution, and the laws of the 
United States which shall be made in pursuance 
thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be 
made, under the authority of the United States, 
shall be the supreme law of the land ; and the judges 
in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in 
the Constitution or laws of any State to the con- 
trary notwithstanding, 

(Clause 3.) The senators and representatives before 
mentioned, and the members of the several State 
legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, 
both of the United States, and of the several States, 
shall be bound, by oath or affirmation, to support 
this Constitution ; but no religious test shall ever be 
required as a qualification to any office or public 
trust under the United States. 

Article VII. 

The ratification of the conventions of nine States 
shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Con- 



104 ELEMENTS (DF CIVII, GOVERNMENT. 

stitution between the States so ratifying the same. 
Done in convention by the unanimous consent of 
the States present, the seventeenth day of Septem- 
ber, in the year of our Iyord one thousand seven 
hundred and eighty-seven, and of the Independence 
of the United States of America the twelfth. 

AMENDMENTS 

To the Constitution of the United States, Ratified 
according to the Provisions of the Fifth Article of 
the foregoing Constitution. 

Article I. 

Congress shall make no law respecting an estab- 
lishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise 
thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the 
press ; or the right of the people peaceably to assem- 
ble, and to petition the Government for a redress of 
grievances. (1791.) 

Article II. 

A well-regulated militia being necessary to the 
security of a free State, the right of the people to 
keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. (1791.) 

Article III. 

No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in 
any house, without the consent of the owner, nor, in 
time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by 
law. (1791.) 

Article IV. 

The right of the people to be secure in their per- 
sons, houses, papers and effects, against unreason- 
able searches and seizures, shall not be violated ; 
and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable 
cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particu- 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 105 

larly describing the place to be searched, and the 
persons or things to be seized. (1791.) 

Article V. 

No person shall be held to answer for a capital or 
otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment 
or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising 
in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in 
actual service, in time of war, or public danger : nor 
shall any person be subject, for the same offense, to 
be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb ; nor shall 
be compelled in any criminal case, to be a witness 
against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or 
property, without due process of law, nor shall pri- 
vate property be taken for public use, without just 
compensation. (1791.) 

Article VI. 

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall 
enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an 
impartial jury of the State and district wherein the 
crime shall have been committed, which district 
shall have been previously ascertained by law, and 
to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusa- 
tion ; to be confronted with the witnesses against 
him ; to have compulsory process for obtaining wit- 
nesses in his favor ; and to have the assistance of 
counsel for his defense. (1791.) 

Article VII. 

In suits at common law, where the value in con- 
troversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of 
trial by jury shall be preserved ; and no fact, tried 
by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any 
court of the United States, than according to the 
rules of the common law. (1791.) 



106 ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

Article VIII. 

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive 
fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments 
inflicted. (1791.) 

Article IX. 

The enumeration in the Constitution of certain 
rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage 
others retained by the people. (1791.) 

Article X. 

The powers not delegated to the United States by 
the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, 
are reserved to the States respectively, or to the 
people. (1791.) 

Article XI. 
' The judicial power of the United States shall not 
be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, 
commenced or prosecuted against one of the United 
States by citizens of another State, or by citizens or 
subjects of any foreign State. (1798.) 

Article XII. 
(Clause 1.) The electors shall meet in their respec- 
tive States, and vote by ballot for President and Vice- 
President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an in- 
habitant of the same State with themselves; they 
shall name in their ballots the person voted for as 
President; and in distinct ballots the person voted 
for as Vice-President; and they shall make distinct 
lists of all persons voted for as President and of all 
persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the num- 
ber of votes for each, which lists, they shall sign, and 
certify, and transmit, sealed, to the seat of the govern- 
ment of the United States, directed to the president of 
the Senate; the president of the Senate shall, in the 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 107 

presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, 
open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be 
counted; the person having the greatest number ot 
votes for President shall be the President, if such 
number be a majority of the whole number of elec- 
tors appointed; and if no person have such majority, 
then, from the persons having the highest numbers, 
not exceeding three, on the list of those voted for 
as President, the House of Representatives shall 
choose immediately, by ballot, the President, but in 
choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by 
States, the representation from each State having 
one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist oi 
a member or members from two thirds of the States, 
and a majority of all the States shall be necessary 
to a choice. And if the House of Representatives 
shall not choose a President, whenever the right to 
choose shall devolve upon them, before the fourth 
day of March next following, then the Vice-Presi- 
dent shall act as President as in the case of the death, 
or other Constitutional disability of the President. 

(Clause 2.) The person having the greatest num- 
ber of votes as Vice-President shall be the Vice- 
President, if such number be a majority of the whole 
number of electors appointed; and if no person have 
a majority, then, from the two highest numbers on 
the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President ; 
a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two thirds 
of the whole number of senators; a majority of the 
whole number shall be necessary to a choice. 

(Clause 3.) But no person Constitutionally inel- 
igible to the office of President, shall be eligible to 
that of Vice-President of the United States. (1804.) 

Article XIII. 
(Clause 1.) Neither slavery nor involuntary servi- 



108 ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

tude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the 
party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist 
within the United States, or any place subject to their 
jurisdiction. 

(Clause 2.) Congress shall have power to enforce 
this article by appropriate legislation. (1865 ) 

Article XIV. 

(Clause 1.) All persons born or naturalized in the 
United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, 
are citizens of the United States and of the State 
wherein they reside. No State shall make or en- 
force any law which shall abridge the privileges or 
immunites of citizens of the United States; nor shall 
any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or 
property, without due process of law, nor deny to 
any person within its jurisdiction the equal protec- 
tion of the laws . 

(Clause 2.) Representatives shall be apportioned 
among the several States according to their respec- 
tive numbers, counting the whole number of persons 
in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But 
when the right to vote at any election for the choice of 
electors for President and Vice-President of the United 
States, representatives in Congress, the executive and 
judicial officers of a State, or the members of the 
legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male 
inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of 
age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way 
abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or 
other crime, the basis of representation therein shall 
be reduced in the proportion which the number of 
such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of 
male citizens twenty-one years of age, in such State. 

(Clause 3.) No person shall be a senator or repre- 
sentative in Congress or elector of President and 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. IO9 

Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, 
under the United States, or under any State, who, 
having previously taken an oath as a member of 
Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as 
a member of any State legislature, or an executive 
or judicial officer of any State, to support the Con- 
stitution of the United States, shall have engaged in 
insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given 
aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress 
may, by a vote of two thirds of each house, remove 
such disability. 

(Clause 4.) The validity of the public debt of the 
United States, authorized by law, including debts 
incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for 
services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, 
shall not be questioned. But neither the United 
States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or 
obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebel- 
lion against the United States, or any claim for the 
loss or emancipation of any slave, but all such debts, 
obligations, and claims, shall be held illegal and 
void. 

(Clause 5.) The Congress shall have power to 
enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of 
this article. (1868.) 

Article XV. 

(Clause 1.) The right of citizens of" the United 
States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the 
United States or by any State, on account of race, 
color, or previous condition of servitude. 

(Clause 2.) The Congress shall have power to en- 
force this article by appropriate legislation. (1870.) 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



[This Constitution went into operation on January 1, 1874, ex- 
cept wherein otherwise provided therein. 

PREAMBLE. 

We, the people of the Commonwealth of Pennsyl- 
vania, grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of 
civil and religious liberty, and humbly invoking His 
guidance, do ordain and establish this Constitution. 

Article I. 

DECLARATION OF RIGHTS. 

That the general, great and essential principles of 
liberty and free government may be recognized and 
unalterably established, we declare that 

Sec. i. All men are born equally free and inde- 
pendent, and have certain inherent and indefeasible 
rights, among which are those of enjoying and de- 
fending life and liberty, of acquiring, possessing, 
and protecting property and reputation, and of 
pursuing their own happiness. 

Sec. 2. All power is inherent in the people, and 
all free governments are founded on their authority 
and instituted for their peace, safety, and happiness. 
For the advancement of these ends, they have at all 
times an inalienable and indefeasible right to alter, 
reform, or abolish their government in such manner 
as they may think proper. 

Sec. 3. All men have a natural and indefeasible 
110 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. Ill 

right to worship Almighty God according to the 
dictates of their own consciences ; no man can of 
right be compelled to attend, erect, or support any 
place of worship, or to maintain any ministry 
against his consent ; no human authority can, in 
any case whatever, control or interfere with the 
rights of conscience, aud no preference shall ever be 
given by law to any religious establishments or 
modes of worship. 

Sec. 4. No person who acknowledges the being of 
a God, and a future state of. rewards and punish- 
ments, shall, on account of his religious sentiments, 
be disqualified to hold any office or place of trust or 
profit under this Commonwealth. 

Sec. 5. Elections shall be free and equal ; and 
no power, civil or military, shall at any time inter- 
fere to prevent the free exercise of the right of suf- 
frage. 

Sec. 6. Trial by jury shall be as heretofore, and 
the right thereof remain inviolate. 

Sec. 7. The printing press shall be free to every 
person who may undertake to examine the proceed- 
ings of the legislature, or any branch of government, 
and no law shall ever be made to restrain the right 
thereof. The free communication of thoughts and 
opinions is one of the invaluable rights of man, and 
every citizen may freely speak, write, and print on 
any subject, being responsible for the abuse of that 
liberty. No conviction shall be had in any prosecu- 
tion for the publication of papers relating to the 
official conduct of officers or men in public capacity,. 
or to any other matter proper for public investiga- 
tion or information, where the fact that such publi- 
cation was not maliciously or negligently made shall 
be established to the satisfaction of the jury ; and in 
all indictments for libel, the jury shall have the right 



112 ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

to determine the law and the facts under the direc- 
tion of the court, as in other cases. 

Sec. 8. The people shall be secure in their persons, 
houses, papers, and possessions from unreasonable 
searches and seizures, and no warrant to search any 
place or to seize any person or things shall issue 
without describing them as nearly as may be, nor 
without probable cause, supported by oath or affir- 
mation, subscribed to by the affiant. 

Sec, 9. In all criminal prosecutions the accused 
hath a right to be hear„d by himself and his counsel, 
to demand the nature and cause of the accusation 
against him, to meet the witnesses face to face, to 
have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in 
his favor, and, in prosecutions by indictment or infor- 
mation, a speedy public trial by an impartial jury of 
the vicinage ; he cannot be compelled to give 
evidence against himself, nor can he be deprived of 
his life, liberty, or property, unless by the judgment 
of his peers or the law of the land. 

SEC 10. No person shall, for any indictable 
offense, be proceeded against criminally by informa- 
tion, except in cases arising in the land or naval 
forces, or in the militia, when in actual service, in 
time of war or public danger, or by leave of the 
court, for oppression or misdemeanor in office. No 
person shall, for the same offense, be twice put in 
jeopardy of life or limb ; nor shall private property 
be taken or applied to public use, without authority 
of law and without just compensation being first 
made or secured. 

Sec. 11. All courts shall be open, and every man 
for an injury done him in his lands, goods, person, 
or reputation, shall have remedy by due course of 
law, and right and justice administered without sale, 
denial, or delay. Suits may be brought against the 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. II3 

Commonwealth in such manner, in such courts, and 
in such cases as the legislature may by law direct. 

Sec. 12. No power of suspending laws shall be 
exercised unless by the legislature, or by its au- 
thority. 

Sec. 13. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor 
excessive fines imposed, nor cruel punishments in- 
flicted. 

Sec. 14. All prisoners shall be bailable by suffi- 
cient sureties, unless for capital offenses, when the 
proof is evident or presumption great ; and the 
privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be 
suspended, unless when in case of rebellion or inva- 
sion the public safety may require it. 

Sec. 15. No commission of oyer or terminer or jail 
delivery shall be issued. 

Sec. 16. The person of a debtor, where there is 
not strong presumption of fraud, shall not be con- 
tinued in prison after delivering up his estate for the 
benefit of his creditors, in such manner as shall be 
prescribed by law. 

Sec. 17. No ex post facto law, nor any law impair- 
ing the obligation of contracts, or making irrevoca- 
ble any grant of special privileges or immunities, 
shall be passed. 

Sec. 18. No person shall be attainted of treason or 
felony by the legislature. 

Sec. 19. No attainder shall work corruption of 
blood, nor, except during the life of the offender, 
forfeiture of estate to the Commonwealth. The 
estate of such persons as shall destroy their own 
lives shall descend or vest as in cases of natural 
death, and if any person shall be killed by casualty 
there shall be no forfeiture by reason thereof. 

Sec. 20. The citizens have a right in a peaceable 
manner to assemble together for their common good, 



114 ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

and to apply to those invested with the powers of 
government for redress of grievances or other proper 
purposes by petition, address, or remonstrance. 

Sec. 21. The right of the citizens to bear arms in 
defense of themselves and the State shall not be 
questioned. 

Sec. 22. No standing army shall, in time of peace, 
be kept up without the consent of the legislature, 
and the military shall in all cases and at all times be 
in strict subordination to the civil power. 

Sec. 23. No soldier shall in time of peace be quar- 
tered in any house without the consent of the owner, 
nor in time of war but in a manner to be prescribed 
by law. 

Sec. 24. The legislature shall not grant any title 
of nobility or hereditary distinction, nor create any 
office, the appointment to which shall be for a longer 
term than during good behavior. 

Sec. 25. Emigration from the State shall not be 
prohibited. 

Sec. 26, To guard against transgressions of the 
high powers which we have delegated, we declare 
that everything in this article is excepted out of the 
general powers of government and shall forever 
remain inviolate. 

Article II. 

THE LEGISLATURE. 

Sec i. The legislative power of this Common- 
wealth shall be vested in a General Assembly, which 
shall consist of a Senate and a House of Represent- 
atives. 

Sec. 2. Members of the General Assembly shall 
be chosen at the general election every second year. 
Their term of .service shall begin on the first day of 
December next after their election. Whenever a 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 115 

vacancy shall occur in either house, the presiding 
officer thereof shall issue a writ of election to fill 
such vacancy for the remainder of the term. 

Sec 3. Senators shall be elected for the term of four 
years, and representatives for the term of two years. 

Sec. 4. The General Assembly shall meet at twelve 
o'clock, noon, on the first Tuesday of January every 
second year, and at other times when convened by 
the Governor, but shall hold no adjourned annual 
session after the year one thousand eight hundred 
and seventy- eight. In case of a vacancy in the of- 
fice of United States senator from this Common- 
wealth, in a recess between sessions, the Governor 
shall convene the two houses, by proclamation on 
notice not exceeding sixty days, to fill the same. 

Sec. 5. Senators shall be at least twenty-five years 
of age, and representatives twenty-one years of age. 
They shall have been citizens and inhabitants of the 
State four years, and inhabitants of their respective 
districts one year next before their election (unless 
absent on the public business of the United States, 
or of this State), and shall reside in their respective 
districts during their terms of service. 

Sec. 6. No senator or representative shall, during 
the time for which he shall have been elected, be ap- 
pointed to any civil office under this Commonwealth, 
and no member of Congress, or other person holding 
any office (except of attorney-at-law or in the mili- 
tia), under the United States, or this Commonwealth, 
shall be a member of either house during his con- 
tinuance in office. 

Sec. 7. No person hereafter convicted of embezzle- 
ment of public moneys, bribery, perjury, or other in- 
famous crime, shall be eligible to the General Assem- 
bly, or capable of holding any office of trust or profit 
in this Commonwealth. 



Il6 ELEMENTS OF CIVII, GOVERNMENT. 

Sec. 8. The members of the General Assembly shall 
receive such salary and mileage for regular and special 
sessions as shall be fixed by law, and no other com- 
pensation whatever, whether for service upon commit- 
tee or otherwise. No member of either house shall, 
during the term for which he may have been elected, 
receive any increase of salary or mileage, under any 
law passed during such term. 

Sec. 9. The Senate shall, at the beginning and 
close of each regular session, and at such other 
times as may be necessary, elect one of its members 
president pro tempore ', who shall perform the duties of 
the Lieutenant-Governor, in any case of absence or 
disability of that officer, and whenever the said office 
of the Lieutenant- Governor shall be vacant. The 
House of Representatives shall elect one of its mem- 
bers as speaker. Each house shall choose its other 
officers, and shall judge of the election and qualifica- 
tions of its members. 

Sec. 10 A majority of each house shall constitute 
a quorum, but a smaller number may adjourn from 
day to day, and compel the attendance of absent 
members. 

Sec. 11. Each house shall have power to determine 
the rules of its proceedings, and punish its members 
or other persons for contempt or disorderly behavior 
in its presence, to enforce obedience to its process, 
to protect its members against violence, or offers of 
bribes or private solicitation, and with the concur- 
rence of two thirds, to expel a member, but not a 
second time for the same cause, and shall have all 
other powers necessary for the legislature of a free 
State. A member expelled for corruption shall not 
thereafter be eligible to either house, and punish- 
ment for contempt or disorderly behavior shall not 
bar an indictment for the same offense. 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. II 7 

Sec. 12. Each house shall keep a journal of its 
proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, 
except such parts as require secrecy, and the yeas 
and nays of the members on any question shall, at the 
desire of any two of them, be entered on the journal. 

Sec. 13. The sessions of each house, and of com- 
mittees of the whole, shall be open, unless when the 
business is such as ought to be kept secret. 

Sec. 14. Neither house shall, without the consent 
of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor 
to any other place than that in which the two houses 
shall be sitting. 

Sec. 15. The members of the General Assembly 
shall in all cases except treason, felony, violation of 
their oath of office, and breach or surety of the 
peace, be privileged from arrest during their attend- 
ance at the sessions of their respective houses and in 
going to and returning from the same; and for any 
speech or debate in either house they shall not be 
questioned in any other place. 

Sec. 16. The State shall be divided into fifty sena- 
torial districts of compact and contiguous territory 
as nearly equal in population as may be, and each 
district shall be entitled to elect one senator. Each 
county containing one or more ratios of population 
shall be entitled to one senator for each ratio, and to 
an additional senator for a surplus of population ex- 
ceeding three fifths of a ratio, but no county shall 
form a separate district unless it shall contain four 
fifths of a ratio, except where the adjoining counties 
are each entitled to one or more senators, when such 
county may be assigned a senator on less than four 
fifths and exceeding one half of a ratio; and no 
county shall be divided unless entitled to two or 
more senators. No city or county shall be entitled 
to separate representation exceeding one sixth of the 



Il8 ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

whole number of senators. No ward, borough, or 
township shall be divided in the formation of a dis- 
trict. The senatorial ratio shall be ascertained by 
dividing the whole population of the State by the 
number fifty. 

Sec. 17. The members of the House of Represen- 
tatives shall be apportioned among the several coun- 
ties, on a ratio obtained by dividing the population 
of the State, as ascertained by the most recent United 
States census, by two hundred. Every county con- 
taining less than five ratios shall have one represen- 
tative for every full ratio, and an additional repre- 
sentative when the surplus exceeds half a ratio; but 
each county shall have at least one representative. 
Every county containing five ratios or more shall 
have one representative for every full ratio. Every 
city containing a population equal to a ratio shall 
elect separately its proportion of the representatives 
allotted to the county in which it is located. Every 
city entitled to more than four representatives, and 
every county having over one hundred thousand in- 
habitants, shall be divided into districts of compact 
and contiguous territory, each district to elect its 
proportion of representatives according to its popula- 
tion, but no district shall elect more than four repre- 
sentatives. 

Sec. 18. The General Assembly at its first session 
after the adoption of this Constitution, and immedi- 
ately after each United States decennial census, shall 
apportion the State into senatorial and representa- 
tive districts, agreeably to the provisions of the two 
next preceding sections. 

Article III. 

LEGISLATION. 

Sec. i. No law shall be passed except by bill, and 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 119 

no bill shall be so altered or amended, on its passage 
through either house, as to change its original pur- 
pose. 

Sec. 2. No bill shall be considered unless referred 
to a committee, returned therefrom, and printed for 
the use of the members. 

Sec 3. No bills, except general appropriation bills, 
shall be passed containing more than one subject, 
which shall be clearly expressed in its title. 

Sec. 4. Every bill shall be read at length on three 
different days, in each house; all amendments made 
thereto shall be printed for the use of the members 
before the final vote is taken on the bill, and no bill 
shall become a law, unless on its final passage the 
vote be taken by yeas and nays, the names of the 
persons voting for and against the same be en- 
tered on the journal, and a majority of the mem- 
bers elected to each house be recorded thereon as vo- 
ting in its favor. 

Sec. 5. No amendments to bills by one house shall 
be concurred in by the other, except by the vote of a 
majority of the members elected thereto taken by 
yeas and nays, and the names of those voting for 
and against recorded upon the journal thereof; and 
reports of committees of conference shall be adopted 
in either house only by the vote of a majority of the 
members elected thereto, taken by yeas and nays, 
and the names of those voting recorded upon the 
journals. 

Sec. 6. No law shall be revived, amended, or the pro- 
visions thereof extended or conferred, by reference to 
its title only, but so much thereof as is revived, 
amended, extended, or conferred, shall be re-enacted, 
and published at length. 

Sec. 7. The General Assembly shall not pass any 
local or special law authorizing the creation, exten- 



120 ELEMENTS OF CI VII* GOVERNMENT. 

sion, or impairing of liens; regulating the affairs of 
counties, cities, townships, wards, boroughs, or 
school districts; changing the names of persons or 
places; changing the venue in civil or criminal cases; 
authorizing the laying out, opening, altering, or 
maintaining roads, highways, streets, or alleys; re- 
lating to ferries or bridges, or incorporating ferry or 
bridge companies, except for the erection of bridges 
crossing streams which form boundaries between 
this and any other State; vacating roads, town plats, 
streets, or alleys; relating to cemeteries, grave-yards y 
or public grounds not of the State; authorizing the 
adoption or legitimation of children; locating or 
changing county seats; erecting new counties, or 
changing county lines; incorporating cities, towns y 
or villages, or changing their charters; for the open- 
ing and conducting of elections, or fixing or chang- 
ing the place of voting; granting divorces; erecting 
new townships or boroughs; changing township 
lines, borough limits, or school districts; creating 
offices, or prescribing the powers and duties of offi- 
cers in counties, cities, boroughs, townships, elec- 
tion, or school districts; changing the law of descent 
or succession; regulating the practice or jurisdiction 
of, or changing the rules of evidence in, any judicial 
proceeding or inquiry before courts, aldermen, jus- 
tices of the peace, sheriffs, commissioners, arbitra- 
tors, auditors, masters in chancery, or other tribu- 
nals, or providing or changing methods for the col- 
lection of debts, or the enforcing of judgments, or 
prescribing the effect of judicial sales of real estate; 
regulating the fees, or extending the powers and 
duties of aldermen, justices of the peace, magistrates, 
or constables; regulating the management of public 
schools, the building or repairing of school-houses, 
and the raising of money for such purposes; fixing 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 121 

the rate of interest; affecting the estates of minors 
or persons under disability, except after due notice 
to all parties in interest, to be recited in the special 
enactment; remitting fines, penalties, and forfeitures, 
or refunding moneys legally paid into the treasury; 
exempting property from taxation; regulating labor, 
trade, mining, or manufacturing; creating corpora- 
tions, or amending, renewing, or extending the char- 
ters thereof; granting to any corporation, association, 
or individual any special or exclusive privilege or im- 
munity, or to any corporation, association, or individ- 
ual the right to lay down a railroad track ; nor shall 
the General Assembly indirectly enact such special 
or local law by the partial repeal of a general law; 
but laws repealing local or special acts may be 
passed; nor shall any law be passed granting powers 
or privileges in any case where the granting of such 
powers and privileges shall have been provided for 
by general law, nor where the courts have jurisdic- 
tion to grant the same or give the relief asked for. 

Sec. 8. No local or special bill shall be passed un- 
less notice of the intention to apply therefor shall 
have been published in the locality where the mat- 
ter or the thing to be effected may be situated, which 
notice shall be at least thirty days prior to the intro- 
duction into the General Assembly of such bill and 
in the manner to be provided by law; the evidence of 
such notice having been published shall be exhib- 
ited in the General Assembly before such act shall 
be passed. 

Sec. 9. The presiding officer of each house shall, 
in the presence of the house over which he presides, 
sign all bills and joint resolution passed by the 
General Assembly, after their titles have been pub- 
licly read immediately before signing; and the fact 
of signing shall be entered on the journal. 



122 ELEMENTS OF CIVII, GOVERNMENT. 

Sec. io. The General Assembly shall prescribe by- 
law the number, duties and compensation of the offi- 
cers and employes of each house, and no payment 
shall be made from the State treasury, or be in any 
way authorized, to any person, except to an acting- 
officer or employe elected or appointed in pursuance 
of law. 

Sec. ii. No bill shall be passed giving any extra 
compensation to any public officer, servant, employe, 
agent or contractor, after services shall have been 
rendered or contract made, nor providing for the pay- 
ment of any claim against the Commonwealth with- 
out previous authority of law. 

Sec. 12. All stationery, printing paper, and fuel 
used in the legislative and other departments of 
government shall be furnished, and the printing, 
binding, and distributing of the laws, journals, de- 
partment reports, and all other printing and binding 
and the repairing and furnishing the halls and rooms 
used for the meeting of the General Assembly and 
its committees, shall be performed under contract to 
be given to the lowest responsible bidder below such 
maximum price and under such regulations as shall 
be prescribed by law: no member or officer of any de- 
partment of the government shall be in any way in- 
terested in such contracts, and all such contracts 
shall be subject to the approval of the Governor, 
auditor-general, and State treasurer. 

Sec. 13. No law shall extend the term of any pub- 
lic officer, or increase or diminish his salary or 
emoluments, after his election or appointment. 

Sec. 14. All bills for raising revenue shall origi- 
nate in in the House of Representatives, but the 
Senate may propose amendments as in other bills. 

Sec. 15. The general appropriation bill shall em- 
brace nothing but appropriations for the ordi- 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 1 23 

nary expenses of the executive, legislative, and ju- 
dicial departments of the Commonwealth, interest 
on the public debt, and for public schools; all other 
appropriations shall be made by separate bills, each 
embracing but one subject. 

Sec 16. No money shall be paid out of the treas* 
ury except upon appropriations made by law, and 
on warrant drawn by the proper officer in pursuance 
thereof. 

Sec. 17. No appropriation shall be made to any 
charitable or educational institution not under the 
absolute control of the Commonwealth, other than 
normal schools established by law for the profes- 
sional training of teachers for the public schools of 
the State, except by a vote of two thirds of all the 
members elected to each house. 

Sec. 18. No appropriations except for pensions or 
gratuities for military services, shall be made for 
charitable, educational or benevolent purposes to 
any person or community, nor to any denomina- 
tional or sectarian institution, corporation, or asso- 
ciation. 

Sec. 19. The General Assembly may make appro ■ 
priations of money to institutions wherein the 
widows of soldiers are supported or assisted, or 
the orphans of soldiers are maintained and educated, 
but such appropriations shall be applied exclusively 
to the support of such widows and orphans. 

Sec. 20. The General Assembly shall not delegate 
to any special commission, private corporation or 
association, any power to make, supervise, or inter- 
fere with any municipal improvement, money, 
property or effects, whether held in trust, or other- 
wise, or to levy taxes or perform any municipal 
function whatever. 

Sec. 21. No act of the General Assembly shall 



124 ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

limit the amount to be recovered for injuries result- 
ing in death, or for injuries to persons or property : 
and in case of death from such injuries the right of 
action shall survive, and the General Assembly shall 
prescribe for whose benefit such actions shall be 
prosecuted. No act shall prescribe any limitations 
of time within which suits may be brought against 
corporations for injuries to persons or property, or 
for other causes different from those fixed by general 
laws regulating actions against natural persons, and 
such acts now existing are avoided. 

Sec. 22. No act of the General Assembly shall 
authorize the investment of trust funds by executors, 
administrators, guardians or other trustees, in the 
bonds or stock of any private corporation, and such 
acts now existing are avoided, saving investments 
heretofore made. 

Sec. 23. The power to change the venue in civil 
and criminal cases shall be vested in the courts, to 
be exercised in such manner as shall be provided by 
law. 

Sec. 24. No obligation or liability of any railroad 
or other corporation, held or owned by the Common- 
wealth, shall ever be exchanged, transferred, remit- 
ted, postponed, or in any way diminished by the 
General Assembly, nor shall such liability or obliga- 
tion be released, except by payment thereof into the 
State treasury. 

Sec. 25. When the General Assembly shall be 
convened in special session there shall be no legisla- 
tion upon subjects other than those designated in 
the proclamation of the Governor calling such ses- 
sion. 

Sec 26. Every order, resolution, or vote, to which 
the concurrence of both houses may be necessary 
(except on the question of adjournment), shall be 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 1 25 

presented to the Governor, and, before it shall take 
effect, be approved by him, or, being disapproved, 
shall be re-passed by two thirds of both houses, ac- 
cording to the rules and limitations prescribed in 
case of a bill. 

Sec. 27. No State office shall be continued or 
created for the inspection or measuring of any mer- 
chandise, manufacture, or commodity, but any 
county or municipality may appoint such officers 
when authorized by law. 

Sec. 28. No law changing the location of the cap- 
ital of the State shall be valid, until the same shall 
have been submitted to the qualified electors of the 
Commonwealth, at a general election, and ratified 
and approved by them. 

Sec. 29. A member of the General Assembly who 
shall solicit, demand, or receive or consent to receive, 
directly or indirectly, for himself or for another, 
from any company, corporation or person, any 
money, office, appointment, employment, testimo- 
nial, reward, thing of value, or enjoyment, or of per- 
sonal advantage, or promise thereof, for his vote, or 
official influence, or for withholding the same, or 
with an understanding, expressed or implied, that 
his vote or official action shall be, in any way, influ- 
enced thereby, or who shall solicit, or demand any 
such money, or other advantage, matter, or thing 
aforesaid for another, as the consideration of his vote 
or official influence, or for withholding the same, or 
shall give, or withhold his vote or influence, in con- 
sideration of the payment or promise of such money, 
advantage, matter or thing to another, shall be held 
guilty of bribery within the meaning of this Consti- 
tution, and shall incur the disabilities provided 
thereby for said offense, and such additional punish- 
ment as is or shall be provided by law. 



126 ELEMENTS OF CIVII, GOVERNMENT. 

Sec. 30. Any person who shall, directly or 
indirectly, offer, give, or promise, any money, or 
thing of value, testimonial, privilege or personal 
advantage, to any executive or judicial officer, or 
member of the General Assembly, to influence 
him in the performance of any of his public or 
official duties, shall be guilty of bribery, and be 
punished in such manner as shall be provided by 
law. 

Sec. 31. The offense of corrupt solicitation of 
members of the General Assembly, or of public offi- 
cers of the State, or of any municipal division 
thereof, and any occupation, or practice of solicita- 
tion, of such members or officers, to influence their 
official action, shall be defined by law, and shall be 
punished by fine and imprisonment. 

Sec. 32. Any person may be compelled to testify 
in any lawful investigation, or judicial proceeding, 
against any person, who may be charged with 
having committed the offense of bribery or corrupt 
solicitation, or practices of solicitation, and shall 
not be permitted to withhold his testimony upon 
the ground that it may criminate himself, or sub- 
ject him to public infamy ; but such testimony shall 
not afterwards be used against him in any judicial 
proceeding, except for perjury in giving such testi- 
mony ; and any person convicted of either* of the 
offenses aforesaid shall, as part of the punishment 
therefor, be disqualified from holding any office or 
position of honor, trust, or profit in this Common- 
wealth. 

Sec. 33. A member who has a personal or private 
interest in any measure or bill proposed or pending 
before the General Assembly, shall disclose the fact 
to the house of which he is a member, and shall not 
vote thereon. 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. I2J 

Article IV. 

THE EXECUTIVE. 

Sec. i. The executive department of this Com- 
monwealth shall consist of a Governor, Lieutenant- 
Governor, Secretary of the Commonwealth, Attorney 
General, Auditor General, State Treasurer, Secretary 
of Internal Affairs, and a Superintendent of Public 
Instruction. 

Sec. 2. The supreme executive power shall be 
vested in the Governor, who shall take care that the 
laws be faithfully executed ; he shall be chosen on 
the day of the general election, by the qualified elec- 
tors of the Commonwealth, at the places where they 
shall vote for representatives. The returns of every 
election for Governor shall be sealed up and transmit- 
ted to the seat of government, directed to the presi- 
dent of the Senate, who shall open and publish them 
in the presence of the members of both houses of the 
General Assembly. The person having the highest 
number of votes shall be Governor ; but if two or 
more be equal and highest in votes, one of them shall 
be chosen Governor by the joint vote of the members 
of both houses. Contested elections shall be deter- 
mined by a committee, to be selected from both 
houses of the General Assembly, and formed and reg- 
ulated in such manner as shall be directed by law. 

Sec 3. The Governor shall hold his office during 
four years, from the third Tuesday of January next 
ensuing his election, and shall not be eligible to the 
office for the next succeeding term. 

Sec. 4. A Lieutenant- Governor shall be chosen 
at the same time, in the same manner, for the same 
term, and subject to the same provisions as the Gov- 
ernor ; he shall be president of the Senate, but shall 
have no vote unless they be equally divided. 



128 ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT, 

Sec. 5. No person shall be eligible to the office of 
Governor or lieutenant-Governor, except a citizen of 
the United States, who shall have attained the age of 
thirty years, and have been seven years next preced- 
ing his election an inhabitant of the State, unless he 
shall have been absent on the public business of the 
United States or of this State. 

Sec, 6. No member of Congress, or person hold- 
ing any office under the United States, or this State, 
shall exercise the office of Governor or Lieutenant- 
Governor. 

Sec. 7. The Governor shall be commander-in-chief 
of the army and navy of the Commonwealth, and of 
the militia, except when they shall be called into the 
actual service of the United States. 

Sec. 8. He shall nominate, and, by and with the 
advice and consent of two thirds of all the members 
of the Senate, appoint a secretary of the Common- 
wealth and an attorney general during pleasure, a 
superintendent of public instruction for four years, 
and such other officers of the Commonwealth as he is 
or may be authorized by the Constitution or by law 
to appoint ; he shall have power to fill all vacancies 
that may happen in offices to which he may appoint, 
during the recess of the Senate, by granting com- 
missions which shall expire at the end of their next 
session ; he shall have power to fill any vacancy that 
may happen, during the recess of the Senate, in the 
office of auditor general, State treasurer, secretary of 
internal affairs, or superintendent of public instruc- 
tion, in a judicial office, or in any other elective 
office which he is or may be authorized to fill ; if the 
vacancy shall happen during the session of the 
Senate, the Governor shall nominate to the Senate, 
before their final adjournment, a proper person to fill 
said vacancy ; but in any such case of vacancy, in an 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 1 29 

elective office, a person shall be chosen to said office 
at the next general election, unless the vacancy shall 
happen within three calendar months immediately 
preceding such election, in which case the election 
for said office shall be at the second succeeding gen- 
eral election. In acting on executive nominations 
the Senate shall sit with open doors, and, in con- 
firming or rejecting the nominations of the Gover- 
nor, the vote shall be taken by yeas and nays, and 
shall be entered on the journal. 

Sec. 9. He shall have power to remit fines and 
forfeitures, to grant reprieves, commutations of sen- 
tences and pardons, except in cases of impeachment; 
but no pardon shall be granted nor sentence com- 
muted, except upon the recommendation, in writing, 
of the Lieutenant-Governor, secretary of the Com- 
monwealth, attorney general, and secretary of 
internal affairs, or any three of them, after full 
hearing, upon due public notice and in open session ; 
and such recommendation, with the reasons therefor 
at length, shall be recorded and filed in the office of 
the secretary of the Commonwealth. 

Sec. 10. He may require information, in writing, 
from the officers of the executive department, upon 
any subject relating to the duties of their respective 
offices. 

Sec. 11. He shall, from time to time, give to the 
General Assembly information of the state of the 
Commonwealth, and recommend to their considera- 
tion such measures as he may judge expedient. 

Sec. 12. He may on extraordinary occasions, con- 
vene the General Assembly ; and in case of disagree- 
ment between the two houses, with respect to the 
time of adjournment, adjourn them to such time as 
he shall think proper, not exceeding four months. 
He shall have power to convene the Senate in extra- 



130 ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

ordinary session by proclamation, for the transaction 
of executive business. 

Sec. 13. In case of the death, conviction or im- 
peachment, failure to qualify, resignation, or other 
disability of the Governor, the powers, duties and 
emoluments of the office, for the remainder of the 
term, or until the disability be removed, shall 
devolve upon the Lieutenant-Governor. 

Sec. 14. In case of a vacancy in the office of 
Lieutenant-Governor, or when the Lieutenant- 
Governor shall be impeached by the House of 
Representatives, or shall be unable to exercise the 
duties of his office, the powers, duties and emolu- 
ments thereof for the remainder of the term, or until 
the disability be removed, shall devolve upon the 
president pro tempore of the Senate ; and the presi- 
dent pro tempore of the Senate shall in like manner 
become Governor if a vacancy or disability shall 
occur in the office of Governor ; his seat as senator 
shall become vacant whenever he shall become Gov- 
ernor, and shall be filled by election as any other 
vacancy in the Senate. 

Sec. 15. Every bill which shall have passed both 
houses shall be presented to the Governor ; if he ap- 
prove he shall sign it ; but if he shall not approve 
he shall return it, with his objections to the house in 
which it shall have originated, which house shall 
enter the objections at large upon their journal and 
proceed to reconsider it. If, after such reconsidera- 
tion, two thirds of all the members elected to that 
house shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent 
with the objections, to the other house, by which 
likewise it shall be reconsidered, and if approved 
by two thirds of all the members elected to that 
house, it shall be a law ; but in such cases the votes 
ot both houses shall be determined by yeas and nays 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 131 

and the names of the members voting for and 
against the bill shall be entered on the journals of 
each house respectively. If any bill shall not be re- 
turned by the Governor within ten days after it shall 
have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, 
in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the 
General Assembly, by their adjournment prevent its 
return ; in which case it shall be a law, unless he 
shall file the same with his objections, in the office 
of the secretary of the Commonwealth, and give 
notice thereof by public proclamation within thirty 
days after such adjournment. 

Sec. 16. The Governor shall have power to disap- 
prove of any item or items of any bill making 
appropriations of money, embracing distinct items, 
and the part or parts of the bill approved shall be 
the law, and the item or items of appropriations 
disapproved shall be void, unless re -passed accord- 
ing to the rules and limitations prescribed for the 
passage of other bills over the executive veto. 

Sec. 17. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court 
shall preside u$on the trial of any contested election 
of Governor or Lieutenant-Governor, and shall de- 
cide questions regarding the admissibility of evi- 
dence, and shall, upon request of the committee, 
pronounce his opinion upon other questions of law 
involved in the trial. The Governor and Lieutenant- 
Governor shall exercise the duties of their respective 
offices until their successor shall be duly qualified. 

Sec, 18. the secretary of the Commonwealth shall 
keep a record of all official acts and proceedings of 
the Governor, and /when required, lay the same, 
with all papers, minutes and vouchers relating 
thereto, before either branch of the General Assem- 
bly, and perform such other duties as may be 
enjoined upon him by law. 



132 ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

Sec. 19. The secretary of internal affairs shall ex- 
ercise all the powers, and perform all the duties of 
the surveyor general, subject to such changes as shall 
be made by law. His department shall embrace a 
bureau of industrial statistics, and he shall dis- 
charge such duties relating to corporations, to the 
charitable institutions, the agricultural, manufac- 
turing, mining, mineral, timber and other material 
or business interests of the State as may be pre- 
scribed by law. He shall annually, and at such 
other times as may be required by law, make report 
to the General Assembly. 

Sec. 20. The superintendent of public instruction 
shall exercise all the powers and perform all the 
duties of the superintendent of common schools, 
subject to such changes as shall be made by law. 

Sec. 21. The term of the secretary of internal af- 
fairs shall be four years; of the auditor general three 
years, and of the State treasurer two years. These 
officers shall be chosen by the qualified electors of 
the State at general elections. No person elected to 
the office of auditor general or State treasurer shall 
be capable of holding the same office for two consec- 
utive terms. 

Sec. 22. The present great seal of Pennsylvania 
shall be the seal of the State. All commissions shall 
be in the name and by authority of the Common- 
wealth of Pennsylvania, and be sealed with the 
State seal, and signed by the Governor. 

Article V. 

THE JUDICIARY. 

Sec. 1. The judicial power of this Commonwealth 
shall be vested in a Supreme Court, in courts of com- 
mon pleas, courts of oyer and terminer and general 
jail delivery, courts of quarter sessions of the peace, 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 133 

orphans' courts, magistrates' courts, and in such 
other courts as the General Assembly may from time 
to time establish. 

Sec. 2. The Supreme Court shall consist of seven 
judges, who shall be elected by the qualified electors 
of the State at large. They shall hold their offices 
for the term of twenty-one years, if they so long be- 
have themselves well, but shall not be again eligi- 
ble. The judge whose commission shall first ex- 
pire shall be Chief Justice, and thereafter each judge 
whose commission shall first expire shall in turn be 
Chief Justice. 

Sec. 3. The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court shall 
extend over the State, and the judges thereof shall, by 
virtue of their offices, be justices of oyer and termi- 
ner and general jail delivery in the several counties; 
they shall have original jurisdiction in cases of in- 
junction where a corporation is a party defendant, 
of habeas corpus, of mandamus to courts of inferior 
jurisdiction, and of quo warranto as to all officers of 
the Commonwealth whose j urisdiction extends over 
the State, but shall not exercise any other original 
jurisdiction; they shall have appellate jurisdiction 
by appeal, certiorari, or writ of error in all cases, as 
is now or may hereafter be provided by law. 

Sec. 4. Until otherwise directed by law, the courts 
of common pleas shall continue as at present estab- 
lished, except as herein changed; not more than four 
counties shall, at any time, be included in one judi- 
cial district organized for said courts. 

Sec. 5, Whenever a county shall contain forty 
thousand inhabitants it shall constitute a separate 
judicial district, and shall elect one judge learned in 
the law; and the General Assembly shall provide for 
additional judges, as the business of the said dis- 
tricts may require. Counties containing a popula- 



134 ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

tion less than is sufficient to constitute separate dis- 
tricts shall be formed into convenient single districts, 
or, if necessary, may be attached to contiguous dis- 
tricts as the General Assembly may provide. The 
office of associate judge, not learned in the law, is 
abolished in counties forming separate districts; but 
the several associate judges in office when this Con- 
stitution shall be adopted shall serve for their unex- 
pired terms. 

Sec. 9. Judges of the courts of common pleas 
learned in the law shall be judges of the courts of oyer 
and terminer, quarter sessions of the peace, and gen- 
eral jail delivery, and of the orphans' court, and 
within their respective districts, shall be justices of 
the peace as to criminal matters. 

Sec. 10. The judges of the courts of common pleas, 
within their respective counties shall have power to 
issue writs of certiorari to justices of the peace, and 
other inferior courts, not of record, and to cause 
their proceedings to be brought before them, and 
right and justice to be done. 

Sec. 11. Except as otherwise provided in this 
Constitution, justices of the peace, or aldermen, 
shall be elected in the several wards, districts, bor- 
oughs, and townships at the time of the election of 
constables by the qualified electors thereof, in such 
manner as shall be directed by law, and shall be 
commissioned by the Governor for a term of five 
years. No township, ward, district, or borough 
shall elect more than two justices of the peace, or 
aldermen, without the consent of a majority of the 
qualified electors within such township, ward, or 
borough; no person shall be elected to such office 
unless he shall have resided within the township, 
borough, ward, or district for one year next preced- 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 135 

ing his election. In cities containing over fifty 
thousand inhabitants not more than one alderman 
shall be elected in each ward or district. 

Sec. 14. In all cases of summary conviction in this 
Commonwealth, or of judgment in suit for a penalty 
before a magistrate or court not of record, either 
party may appeal to such court of record, as may be 
prescribed by law, upon allowance of the appellate 
court, or judge thereof, upon cause shown. 

Sec. 15. All judges required to be learned in the 
law, except the judges of the Supreme Court, shall be 
elected by the qualified electors of the respective 
districts over which they are to preside, and shall 
hold their offices for the period of ten years, if they 
shall so long behave themselves well; but for any 
reasonable cause, which shall not be sufficient ground 
for impeachment, the Governor may remove any of 
them on the address of two thirds of each house of 
the General Assembly. 

Sec. 16. Whenever two judges of the Supreme 
Court are to be chosen for the same term of service, 
each voter shall vote for one only, and when three 
are to be chosen he shall vote for no more than two; 
candidates highest in vote shall be declared elected. 

Sec. 17. Should any two or more judges of the 
Supreme Court, or any two or more judges of the 
court of common pleas for the same district, be 
elected at the same time, they shall, as soon after the 
election as convenient, cast lots for priority of com- 
mission, and certify the result to the Governor, who 
shall issue their commissions in accordance there- 
with. 

Sec. 18. The judges of the Supreme Court and the 
judges of the several courts of common pleas, and 
all other judges required to be learned in the law, 



136 ELEMENTS OF CIVII, GOVERNMENT. 

shall, at stated times, receive for their services an 
adequate compensation, which shall be fixed by law, 
and paid by the State. They shall receive no other 
compensation, fees, or perquisites of office for their 
services from any source, nor hold any other office of 
profit under the United States, this State, or any 
other State. 

Sec. 19. The judges of the Supreme Court, during 
their continuance in office, shall reside within this 
Commonwealth, and the other judges during their 
continuance in office shall reside within the districts 
for which they shall be respectively elected. 

Sec. 20. The several courts of common pleas, be- 
sides the powers herein conferred, shall have and 
exercise within their respective districts, subject to 
such changes as may be made by law, ' such chancery 
powers as are now vested by law in the several 
courts of common pleas of this Commonwealth, or 
as may hereafter be conferred upon them by law. 

Sec. 21. No duties shall be imposed by law upon 
the Supreme Court or any of the judges thereof ex- 
cept such as are judicial, nor shall any of the judges 
exercise any power of appointment except as herein 
provided. The court of nisi prius is hereby abol- 
ished, and no court of original jurisdiction to be pre- 
sided over by any one or more of the judges of the 
Supreme Court shall be established. 

Sec. 22. In every county wherein the population 
shall exceed one hundred and fifty thousand, the 
General Assembly shall, and in any other county may, 
establish a separate orphans' court, to consist of one 
or more judges who shall be learned in the law, 
which court shall exercise all the jurisdiction and 
powers now vested in or which may hereafter be 
conferred upon the orphans' courts, and thereupon 
the jurisdiction of the judges of the court of common 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 137 

pleas within such county, in orphans' court proceed- 
ings, shall cease and determine. In any county in 
which a separate orphans' court shall be established, 
the register of wills shall be clerk of such court and 
subject to its directions, in all matters pertaining to 
his office; he may appoint assistant clerks, but only 
with the consent and approval of said court. All 
accounts filed with him as register or as clerk of the 
said separate orphans' court, shall be audited by the 
court without expense to parties, except where all 
parties in interest in a pending proceeding shall 
nominate an auditor whom the court may, in its dis- 
cretion, appoint. In every county orphans' courts 
shall possess all the powers and jurisdiction of a reg- 
isters' court, and separate registers' courts are here- 
by abolished. 

Sec. 23. The style of all process shall be* 'The 
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. ' ' All prosecutions 
shall be carried on in the name and by the authority 
of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and con- 
clude " against the peace and dignity of the same." 

Sec. 24. In all cases of felonious homicide, and in 
such other criminal cases as may be provided for by 
law, the accused, after conviction and sentence, may 
remove the indictment, record, and all proceedings 
to the Supreme Court for review. 

Sec. 25. Any vacancy happening by death, resig- 
nation, or otherwise, in any court of record, shall be 
filled by appointment by the Governor, to continue 
till the first Monday of January next succeeding the 
first general election, which shall occur three or more 
months after the happening of such vacancy. 

Sec. 26. All laws relating to courts shall be gen- 
eral, and of uniform operations, and the organiza- 
tion, jurisdiction, and powers of all courts of the 
•same class or grade, so far as regulated by law, and 



138 ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

the force and effect of the process and judgments of 
such courts shall be uniform; and the General As- 
sembly is hereby prohibited from creating other 
courts to exercise the powers vested by this Consti- 
tution in the judges of the courts of common pleas 
and orphans* courts. 

Sec. 27. The parties by agreement filed, may in 
any civil case dispense with trial by jury, and sub- 
mit the decision of such case to the court having 
jurisdiction thereof, and such court shall hear and 
determine the same; and the judgment thereon shall 
be subject to writ of error, as in other cases. 

Article VI. 

IMPEACHMENT AND REMOVAL FROM OFFICE. 

Sec. i. The House of Representatives shall have 
the sole power of impeachment. 

Sec. 2. All impeachments shall be tried by the 
Senate. When sitting for that purpose, the senators 
shall be upon oath or affirmation. No person shall 
be convicted without the concurrence of two thirds 
of the members present. 

Sec 3. The Governor, and all other civil officers, 
shall be liable to impeachment for any misdemeanor 
in office; but judgment in such cases shall not ex- 
tend further than to removal from office, and dis- 
qualification to hold any office of trust or profit un- 
der this Commonwealth; the person accused, whether 
convicted or acquitted, shall nevertheless be liable 
to indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment, ac- 
cording to law. 

Sec. 4. All officers shall hold their offices on the 
condition that they behave themselves well while in 
office, and shall be removed on conviction of mis- 
behavior in office, or of any infamous crime. Ap- 
pointed officers, other than judges of the courts of 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 139 

record and the superintendent of public instruction, 
may be removed at the pleasure of the power by 
which they shall have been appointed. All officers 
elected by the people, except Governor, Lieutenant 
Governor, members of the General Assembly, and 
judges of the courts of record learned in the law, shall 
be removed by the Governor for reasonable cause, 
after due notice and full hearing, on the address of 
two thirds of the Senate. 

Article VII. 

OATH OF OFFICE. 

Sec 1. Senators and representatives, and all ju- 
dicial, State, and county officers, shall, before enter- 
ing on the duties of their respective offices, take and 
subscribe the following oath or affirmation : 

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will sup- 
port, obey, and defend the Constitution of the United 
States, and the Constitution of this Commonwealth, 
and that I will discharge the duties of my office with 
fidelity; that I have not paid or contributed, or 
promised to pay or contribute, either directly or in- 
directly, any money or other valuable thing, to pro- 
cure my nomination or election (or appointment), 
except for necessary and proper expenses expressly 
authorized by law; that I have not knowingly vio- 
lated any election law of this Commonwealth, or 
procured it to be done by others in my behalf; that I 
will not knowingly receive, directly or indirectly, any 
moneys or other valuable thing for the performance or 
non-performance ol any act or duty pertaining to my 
office, other than the compensation allowed by law." 

The foregoing oath shall be administered by some 
person authorized to administer oaths, and in the 
case of State officers and judges of the Supreme 
Court, shall be filed in the office of the secretary of 



140 ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

the Commonwealth, and in the case of other judicial 
and county officers, in the office of the prothonotary 
of the county in which the same is taken; any per- 
son refusing to take said oath or affirmation shall 
forfeit his office, and any person who shall be con- 
victed of having sworn or affirmed falsely, or of hav- 
ing violated said oath or affirmation, shall be guilty 
of perjury, and be forever disqualified from holding 
any office of trust or profit within this Common- 
wealth. The oath to the members of the Senate and 
House of Representatives shall be administered by 
one of the judges of the Supreme Court or of a court 
of common pleas, learned in the law, in the hall of 
the house to which the members shall be elected. 

Article VIII. 

SUFFRAGE AND ELECTIONS. 

Sec i. Kvery male citizen twenty-one years of 
age possessing the following qualifications shall be 
entitled to vote at all elections: First. He shall 
have been a citizen of the United States at least one 
month. Second. He shall have resided in the State 
one year (or if, having previously been a qualified 
elector or native born citizen of the State, he shall 
have removed therefrom and returned, then six 
months) immediately preceding the election. Third. 
He shall have resided in the election district where 
he shall offer to vote at least two months immedi- 
ately preceding the election. Fourth. If twenty-two 
years of age or upwards he shall have paid within 
two years a State or county tax, which shall have 
been assessed at least two months and paid at least 
one month before the election. 

Sec. 2. The general election shall be held annually 
on the Tuesday next following the first Monday of No- 
vember, but the General Assembly may by law fix a 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 141 

different day, two thirds of all the members of each 
house consenting thereto. 

Sec. 3. All elections for city, ward, borough, and 
township officers, for regular terms of service, shall 
be held on the third Tuesday of February. 

Sec. 4. All elections by the citizens shall be by 
ballot. Every ballot voted shall be numbered in the 
order in which it shall be received, and the number 
recorded by the election officers on the list of voters, 
opposite the name of the elector who presents the 
ballot. Any elector may write his name upon his 
ticket, or cause the same to be written thereon and 
attested by a citizen of the district. The election 
officers shall be sworn or affirmed not to disclose how 
any elector shall have voted unless required to do so 
as witnesses in a judicial proceeding. 

Sec. 5. Electors shall in all cases, except treason, 
felony, and breach or surety of the peace, be privi- 
leged from arrest during their attendance on elec- 
tions, and going to and returning therefrom. 

Sec. 6. Whenever any of the qualified electors of 
this Commonwealth shall be in actual military ser- 
vice, under a requisition from the President of the 
United States, or by the authority of this Common- 
wealth, such electors may exercise the right of suf- 
frage in all elections by the citizens, under such reg- 
ulations as are, or shall be, prescribed by law, as 
fully as if they were present at their usual places 
of election. 

Sec. 7. All laws regulating the holding of elec- 
tions by the citizens or for the registration ol 
electors shall be uniform throughout the State, but 
no elector shall be deprived of the privilege of voting 
by reason of his name not being registered. 

Sec. 8. Any person who shall give, or promise or 
offer to give, to an elector, any money, reward or 



142 ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

other valuable consideration for his vote at an elec- 
tion , or for withholding the same, or who shall give 
or promise to give such consideration to any other 
person or party for such elector's vote or for the 
withholding thereof, and any elector who shall re- 
ceive or agree to receive, for himself or for another, 
any money, reward or other valuable consideration 
for his vote at an election, or for withholding the 
same, shall thereby forfeit the right to vote at such 
election, and any .elector whose right to vote shall be 
challenged for such cause before the election officers, 
shall be required to swear or affirm that the matter 
of the challenge is untrue before his vote shall be 
received. 

Sec. 9. Any person who shall, while a candidate 
for office, be guilty of bribery, fraud or wilful viola- 
tion of any election law, shall be forever disqualified 
from holding an office of trust or profit in this Com- 
monwealth ; and any person convicted of wilful 
violation of the election laws shall, in addition to 
any penalties provided by law, be deprived of the 
right of suffrage absolutely for a term of four years. 

Sec. 10. In trials of contested elections and in 
proceedings for the investigation of elections, no 
person shall be permitted to withhold his testimony 
upon the ground that it may criminate himself or 
subject him to public infamy ; but such testimony 
shall not afterwards be used against him in any judi- 
cial proceeding except for perjury in giving such 
testimony. 

Sec. 11. Townships and wards of cities or bor- 
oughs, shall form or be divided into election districts 
of compact and contiguous territory, in such manner 
as the court of quarter sessions of the city or county 
in which the same are located may direct ; but 
districts in cities of over one hundred thousand in- 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 1 43 

habitants shall be divided by the courts of quarter 
sessions, having jurisdiction therein, whenever at 
the next preceding election more than two hundred 
and fifty votes shall have been polled therein ; and 
other election districts whenever the court of the 
proper county shall be of opinion that the conven- 
ience of the electors and the public interests will be 
promoted thereby. 

Sec. 12. All elections by persons in a representa- 
tive capacity shall be viva voce. 

Sec. 13. For the purpose of voting no person shall 
be deemed to have gained a residence by reason of 
his presence, or lost it by reason of his absence, 
while employed in the service, either civil or mili- 
tary, of this State or of the United States, nor while 
engaged in the navigation of the waters of the State 
or of the United States, or on the high seas, nor 
while a student of any institution of learning, nor 
while kept in any poor-house or other asylum at 
public expense, nor while confined in public prison. 

Sec. 14. District election boards shall consist of a 
judge and two inspectors, who shall be chosen annu- 
ally by the citizens. Each elector shall have the 
right to vote ior the judge and one inspector, and 
each inspector shall appoint one clerk. The first 
election board for any new district shall be selected, 
and vacancies in election boards filled as shall be 
provided by law. Election officers shall be privi- 
leged from arrest upon days of election, and while 
engaged in making up and transmitting returns, 
except upon warrant of court of record, or judge 
thereof, for an election fraud, for felony, or for 
wanton breach of the peace. In cities they may 
claim exemption from jury duty during their terms 
of service. 

Sec. 15. No person shall be qualified to serve as 



144 ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

an election officer who shall hold, or shall within 
two months have held, an office, appointment, or 
employment in or under the government of the 
United States or of this State, or of any city or 
county, or of any municipal board, commission, or 
trust in any city, save only justices of the peace, and 
aldermen, notaries public, ahd persons in the militia 
service of the State ; nor shall any election officer be 
eligible to any civil office to be filled at an election 
at which he shall serve, save only to such subordi- 
nate municipal or local officers, below the grade of 
city or county officers, as shall be designated by 
general law. 

Sec. 16. The courts of common pleas of the several 
counties of the Commonwealth shall have power, 
within their respective jurisdictions, to appoint over- 
seers of election to supervise the proceedings of 
election officers, and to make report to the court as 
may be required ; such appointments to be made for 
any district in a city or county upon petition of five 
citizens, lawful voters of such election districts, set- 
ting forth that such appointment is a reasonable 
precaution to secure the purity and fairness of elec- 
tions ; overseers shall be two in number for an 
election district, shall be residents therein, and shall 
be persons qualified to serve upon election boards, 
and in each case members of different political 
parties. Whenever the members of an election board 
shall differ in opinion, the overseers, if they shall be 
agreed thereon, shall decide the question of differ- 
ence ; in appointing overseers of election, all the law 
judges of the proper court, able to act at the time, 
shall concur in the appointments made. 

Sec. 17. The trial and determination of contested 
elections of electors of President and Vice-President, 
members of the General Assembly, and of all public 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 145 

officers, whether State, judicial, municipal, or local, 
shall be by the courts of law, or by one or more of 
the law judges thereof, the General Assembly shall, 
by general law, designate the courts and judges by 
whom the several classes of election contests shall be 
tried, and regulate the manner of trial, and all mat- 
ters incident thereto ; but no such law assigning 
jurisdiction, or regulating its exercise, shall apply 
to any contest arising out of an election held before 
its passage. 

Article IX. 

TAXATION AND FINANCE. 

Sec 1. All taxes shall be uniform, upon the same 
class of subjects, within the territorial limits of the 
authority levying the tax, and shall be levied and 
collected under general laws ; but the General As- 
sembly may, by general laws, exempt from taxation 
public property used for public purposes, actual 
places of religious worship, places of burial not used 
or held for private or corporate profit, and institu- 
tions of a purely public charity. 

Sec. 2. All laws exempting property from taxa- 
tion, other than the property above enumerated, 
shall be void. 

Sec. 3. The power to tax corporations and cor- 
porate property shall not be surrendered or sus- 
pended by any contract or grant to which the State 
shall be a party. 

Sec. 4. No debt shall be created by or on behalf of 
the State, except to supply casual deficiencies of 
revenue, repel invasions, suppress insurrection, de- 
fend the State in war, or to pay existing debt ; and 
the debt created to supply deficiencies in revenue 
shall never exceed, in the aggregate at any one time, 
one million of dollars. 



I46 ELEMENTS OF CIVII, GOVERNMENT. 

' Sec. 5. All laws authorizing the borrowing of 
money by and on behalf of the State, shall specify 
the purpose for which the money is to be used, and 
the money so borrowed shall be used for the purpose 
specified, and no other. 

Sec. 6. The credit of the Commonwealth shall not 
be pledged or loaned to any individual, company, 
corporation or association, nor shall the Common- 
wealth become a joint-owner or stockholder in any 
company, association or corporation. 

Sec. 7. The General Assembly shall not authorize 
any county, city, borough, township or incorporated 
district to become a stockholder in any company, * 
association or corporation, or to obtain or appropriate 
money for, or to loan its credit to, any corporation, 
association, institution or individual. 

Sec. 8. The debt of any county, city, borough, 
township, school district or other municipality or 
incorporated district, except as herein provided, shall 
never exceed seven per centum upon the assessed 
value of the taxable property therein, nor shall any 
such municipality or district incur any new debt, or 
increase its indebtedness to an amount exceeding 
twb per centum upon such assessed valuation of 
property, without the assent of the electors thereof 
at a public election in such manner as shall be pro- 
vided by law ; but any city, the debt of which now 
exceeds seven per centum of such assessed valuation, 
may be authorized by law to increase the same three 
per centum, in the aggregate at any one time, upon 
such valuation. 

Sec. 9. The Commonwealth shall not assume the 
debt, or any part thereof, of any city, county, bor- 
ough or township, unless such debt shall have been 
contracted to enable the State to repel invasion, 
suppress domestic insurrection, defend itself in time 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 147 

of war, or to assist the State in the discharge of any 
portion of its present indebtedness. 

Sec. 10. Any county, township, school district or 
other municipality, incurring any indebtedness, 
shall, at or before the time of so doing, provide for 
the collection of an annual tax, sufficient to pay the 
interest, and also the principal thereof within thirty 
years. 

Sec. 11. To provide for the payment of the present 
State debt, and any additional debt contracted as 
aforesaid, the General Assembly shall continue and 
maintain the sinking fund sufficient to pay the ac- 
cruing interest on such debt, and annually to reduce 
the principal thereof by a sum not less than two 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars ; the said sinking 
fund shall consist of the proceeds of the sales of the 
public works, or any part thereof, and of the income 
or proceeds of the sale of any stocks owned by the 
Commonwealth, together with other funds and re- 
sources that may be designated by law, and shall be 
increased from time to time by assigning to it any 
part of the taxes, or other revenues of the State, not 
required for the ordinary and current expenses of 
government ; and unless in case of war, invasion or 
insurrection, no part of the said sinking fund shall 
be used or applied otherwise than in the extinguish- 
ment of the public debt. 

Sec. 12. The moneys of the State, over and above 
the necessary reserve, shall be used in the payment 
of the debt of the State, either directly or through 
the sinking fund, and the moneys of the sinking 
fund shall never be invested in or loaned upon the 
security of anything, except the bonds of the United 
States, or of this State. 

Sec. 13. The moneys held as necessary reserve 
shall be limited by law to the amount required for 



148 ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

current expenses, and shall be secured and kept as 
may be provided by law. Monthly statements shall 
be published, showing the amount of such moneys, 
where the same are deposited and how secured. 

Sec. 14. The making of profit out of the public 
moneys, or using the same for any purpose not au- 
thorized by law, by any officer of the State, or mem- 
ber or officer of the General Assembly, shall be a 
misdemeanor, and shall be punished as may be pro- 
vided by law, but part of such punishment shall be 
disqualification to hold office for a period of not less 
than five years. 

Article X. 

education. 

Sec. 1. The General Assembly shall provide for 
the maintenance and support of a thorough and effi- 
cient system of public schools, wherein all the chil- 
dren of this Commonwealth, above the age of six 
years, may be educated, and shall appropriate at 
least one million dollars each year for that purpose. 

Sec. 2. No money raised for the support of the 
public schools of the Commonwealth, shall be ap- 
propriated to, or used for the support of any secta- 
rian school. 

Sec. 3. Women twenty-one years of age and up- 
wards shall be eligible to any office of control or 
management under the school laws of this State, 

Article XI. 
militia. 
Sec. i. The freemen of this Commonwealth shall 
be armed, organized, and disciplined for its defense, 
when, and in such manner as may be directed by 
law. The General Assembly shall provide for main- 
taining the militia, by appropriations from the treas- 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 149 

ury of the Commonwealth, and may exempt from 
military service persons having conscientious scru- 
ples against bearing arms. 

Article XII. 

PUBLIC OFFICERS. 

Sec. 1. All officers whose selection is not provided 
for in this Constitution, shall be elected or appointed, 
as may be directed by law. 

Sec. 2. No member of Congress from this State, 
nor any person holding or exercising any office or 
appointment of trust or profit under the United 
States, shall at the same time hold or exercise any 
office in this State to which a salary, fees or perqui- 
sites shall be attached. The General Assembly may 
by law declare what offices are incompatible. 

Sec. 3. Any person who shall fight a duel, or send 
a challenge for that purpose, or be aider or abettor in 
fighting a duel, shall be deprived of the right ot 
holding any office of honor or profit in this State, 
and may be otherwise punished as shall be prescribed 
by law. 

Article XIII. 

NEW COUNTIES. 

Sec. 1. No new county shall be established which 
shall reduce any county to less than four hundred 
square miles, or to less than twenty thousand in- 
habitants, nor shall any county be formed of less 
area, or containing a less population ; nor shall any 
line thereof pass within ten miles of the county seat 
of any county proposed to be divided. 

Article XIV. 

COUNTY OFFICERS. 

Sec. 1. County officers shall consist of sheriffs, 
coroners, prothonotaries, registers of wills, recorder 



150 ELEMENTS OF CIVII, GOVERNMENT. 

of deeds, commissioners, treasurers, surveyors, audi- 
tors or controllers, clerks of the courts, district at- 
torneys, and such others as may from time to time 
be established by law; and no sheriff or treasurer 
shall be eligible for the term next succeeding the one 
for which he may be elected. 

Sec. 2. County officers shall be elected at the gen- 
eral elections, and shall hold their offices for the 
term of three years beginning on the first Monday of 
January next after their election, and until their 
successors shall be duly qualified; all vacancies not 
otherwise provided for, shall be filled in such man- 
ner as may be provided by law. 

Sec. 3. No person shall be appointed to any office 
within any county, who shall not have been a citizen 
and an inhabitant therein one year next before his 
appointment, if the county shall have been so long 
erected, but if it shall not have been so long erected, 
then within the limits of the county or counties out 
of which it shall have been taken. 

Sec. 4. Prothonotaries, clerks of the courts, re- 
corders of deeds, registers of wills, county surveyors, 
and sheriffs, shall keep their offices in the county 
town of the county in which they respectively shall 
be officers. 

Sec. 5. The compensation of county officers shall 
be regulated by law, and all county officers who are 
or may be salaried shall pay all fees which they may 
be authorized to receive, into the treasury of the 
county or State, as may be directed by law. In 
counties containing over one hundred and fifty thou- 
sand inhabitants all county officers shall be paid by 
salary, and the salary of any such officer and his 
clerks, heretofore paid by fees, shall not exceed the 
aggregate amount of fees earned during his term and 
collected by or for him. 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 151 

Sec. 6. The General Assembly shall provide by 
law for the strict accountability of all county, town- 
ship, and borough officers, as well as for the fees 
which may be collected by them, as for all public or 
municipal moneys which may be paid to them. 

Sec. 7. Three county commissioners and three 
county auditors shall be elected in each county where 
such officers are chosen, in the year one thousand 
eight hundred and seventy- five and every third year 
thereafter; and in the election of said officers, each 
qualified elector shall vote for no more than two per- 
sons, and the three persons having the highest num- 
ber of votes shall be elected; any casual vacancy in 
the office of county commissioner or county auditor 
shall be filled by the court of common pleas of the 
county in which such vacancy shall occur, by the 
appointment of an elector of the proper county who 
shall have voted for the commissioner or auditor 
whose place is to be filled. 

•Article XV. 

CITIES AND CITY CHARTERS. 

Sec. i. Cities may be chartered whenever a major- 
ity of the electors of any town or borough having a 
population of at least ten thousand shall vote at any 
general election in favor of the same. 

Sec. 2. No debt shall be contracted or liability in- 
curred by any municipal commission, except in pur- 
suance of an appropriation previously made therefor 
by the municipal government. 

Sec. 3. Every city shall create a sinking fund, 
which shall be inviolably pledged for the payment of 
its funded debt. 

Article XVI. 

PRIVATE CORPORATIONS. 

Sec. 1. All existing charters, or grants of special 



152 ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

or exclusive privileges, under which a bona fide or- 
ganization shall not have taken place and business 
been commenced in good faith, at the time of the 
adoption of -this Constitution, shall thereafter have 
no validity. 

Sec. 2. The General Assembly shall not remit the 
forfeiture of the charter of any corporation now ex- 
isting, or alter or amend the same, or pass any other 
general or special law for the benefit of such corpora- 
tion, except upon the condition that such corpora- 
tion shall thereafter hold its charter subject to the 
provisions of this Constitution. 

Sec. 3. The exercise of the right of eminent do- 
main shall never be abridged or so construed as to 
prevent the General Assembly from taking the prop- 
erty and franchises of incorporated companies, and 
subjecting them to public use, the same as the prop- 
erty of individuals; and the exercise of the police 
power of the State shall never be abridged or so con- 
strued as to permit corporations to conduct their bus- 
iness in such manner as to infringe the equal rights 
of individuals or the general well-being of the State. 

Sec. 4. In all elections for directors or managers 
of a corporation each member or shareholder may 
cast the whole number of his votes for one candidate, 
or distribute them upon two or more candidates, 
as he may prefer. 

Sec. 5. No foreign corporation shall do any busi- 
ness in this State without having one or more known 
places of business and an authorized agent or agents 
in the same upon whom process may be served. 

Sec. 6. No corporation shall engage in any busi- 
ness other than that expressly authorized in its 
charter, nor shall it take or hold any real estate ex- 
cept such as may be necessary and proper for its 
legitimate business. 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 153 

Sec. 7. No corporation shall issue stocks or bonds 
except for money, labor done, or money or property 
actually received, and all fictitious increase of stock 
or indebtedness shall be void. The stock and in- 
debtedness of corporations shall not be increased ex- 
cept in pursuance of general law, nor without the 
consent of the persons holding the larger amount in 
value of the stock first obtained at a meeting to be 
held after sixty days' notice given in pursuance of 
law. 

Sec. 8. Municipal and other corporations and in- 
dividuals invested with the privilege of taking pri- 
vate property for public use shall make just compen- 
sation for property taken, injured, or destroyed by 
the construction or enlargement of their works, high- 
ways or improvements, which compensation shall 
be paid or secured before such taking, injury, or de- 
struction. The General Assembly is hereby prohib- 
ited from depriving any person of an appeal from 
any preliminary assessment of damages against any 
such corporations or individuals made by viewers or 
otherwise; and the amount of such damages in all 
cases of appeal shall, on the demand of either party, 
be determined by a jury, according to the course ol 
the common law. 

Sec. 9. Every banking law shall provide for the 
registry and countersigning, by an officer of the 
State, of all notes or bills designed for circulation, 
and that ample security to the full amount thereof 
shall be deposited with the auditor general for the 
redemption of such notes or bills. 

Sec. 10. The General Assembly shall have the 
power to alter, revoke or annul any charter of incor- 
poration now existing and revocable at the adoption 
of this Constitution, or any that may hereafter be 
created, whenever, in their opinion it may be inju- 



154 ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

rious to the citizens of this Commonwealth, in such 
manner, however, that no injustice shall be done to 
the corporators. No law hereafter enacted shall 
create, renew or extend the charter of more than one 
corporation. 

Sec. ii. No corporate body to possess banking and 
discounting privileges shall be created or organized 
in pursuance of any law without three months' pre- 
vious public notice, at the place of the intended lo- 
cation, of the intention to apply for such privileges, 
in such manner as shall be prescribed by law, nor 
shall a charter for such privilege be granted for a 
longer period than twenty years. 

Sec. 12. Any association or corporation, organized 
for the purpose, or any individual, shall have the 
right to construct and maintain lines of telegraph 
within this State, and to connect the same with 
other lines, and the General Assembly shall, by gen- 
eral law of uniform operation, provide reasonable 
regulations to give full effect to this section. No 
telegraph company shall consolidate with, or hold a 
controlling interest in, the stock or bonds of any 
other telegraph company owning a competing line 
or acquire, by purchase or otherwise, any other com- 
peting line of telegraph. 

Sec. 13. The term " corporation s," as used in this 
article, shall be construed to include all joint stock 
companies or associations having any of the powers, 
or privileges of corporations, not possessed by indi- 
viduals or partnerships. 

Article XVII. 

RAILROADS AND CANALS. 

Sec. i. All railroads and canals shall be public high- 
ways, and all railroad and canal companies shall be 
common carriers. Any association or corporation, 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 155 

organized for the purpose, shall have the right to 
construct and operate a railroad between any points 
within this State, and to connect at the State line with 
railroads of other States. Every railroad company 
shall have the right with its road to intersect, con- 
nect with, or cross, any other railroad; and shall 
receive and transport each the other's passengers, 
tonnage, and cars, loaded or empty, without delay 
or discrimination. 

Sec. 2. Every railroad and canal corporation or- 
ganized in this State, shall maintain an office therein, 
where transfers of its stock shall be made, and where 
its books shall be kept for inspection by any stock- 
holder or creditor of such corporation, in which shall 
be recorded the amount of capital stock subscribed, 
or paid in, and by whom, the names of the owners 
of its stock, and the amounts owned by them, re- 
spectively, the transfers of said stock, and the names 
and places of residence of its officers. 

Sec. 3. All individuals, associations, and corpora- 
tions shall have equal right to have persons and 
property transported over railroads and canals, and 
no undue or unreasonable discrimination shall be 
made in charges for, or in facilities for, transportation 
of freight or passengers within this State, or coming 
from or going to any other State. Persons and prop- 
erty transported over any railroad, shall be delivered 
at any station, at charges not exceeding the charges 
for transportation of persons and property of the 
same class, in the same direction, to any more dis- 
tant station; but excursion and commutation tickets 
may be issued at special rates. 

Sec. 4. No railroad, canal or other corporation, or 
the lessees, purchasers, or managers of any railroad 
or canal corporation, shall consolidate the stock, 
property, or franchises of such corporation with, or 



156 ELEMENTS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

lease or purchase the works, or franchises of, or in 
any way control any other railroad or canal corpora- 
tion, owning, or having under its control, a parallel or 
competing line; nor shall any officer of such railroad 
or canal corporation act as an officer of any other rail- 
road or canal corporation, owning, or having the con- 
trol of a parallel or competing line; and the question 
whether railroads or canals are parallel or competing 
lines shall, when demanded by the party complain- 
ant, be decided by a jury as in other civil issues. 

Sec. 5. No incorporated company doing the busi- 
ness of a common carrier shall, directly or indirectly 
prosecute or engage in mining or manufacturing 
articles for transportation over its works ; nor shall 
such company, directly or indirectly, engage in any 
other business than that of common carriers, or hold 
or acquire lands, freehold or leasehold, directly or 
indirectly, except such as shall be necessary for 
carrying on its business ; but any mining or manu- 
facturing company may carry the products of its 
mines and manufactories on its railroad or canal not 
exceeding fifty miles in length. 

Sec. 6. No president, director, officer, agent, or 
employe of any railroad or canal company shall be 
interested, directly or indirectly, in the furnishing ol 
material or supplies to such company, or in the busi- 
ness of transportation as a common carrier of freight 
or passengers over the works owned, leased, control- 
led, or worked by such company. 

Sec. 7. No discrimination in charges or facilities 
for transportation shall be made between transporta- 
tion companies and individuals, or in favor of either, 
by abatement, drawback, or otherwise, and no rail- 
road or canal company, or any lessee, manager or 
employe* thereof, shall make any preferences in 
furnishing cars or motive power. 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 157 

Sec 8. No railroad, railway or other transporta- 
tion company, shall grant free passes, or passes at a 
discount, to any person except officers or employes 
of the company. 

Sec. 9. No street passenger railway shall be con- 
structed within the limits of any city, borough or 
township, without the consent of its local authori- 
ties. 

Sec. 10. No railroad, canal or other transportation 
company, in existence at the time of the adoption of 
this article, shall have the benefit of any future 
legislation by general or special laws, except on 
condition of complete acceptance of all the provi- 
sions of this article. 

Sec. 11. The existing powers and duties of the 
auditor general in regard to railroads, canals, and 
other transportation companies, except as to their 
accounts, are hereby transferred to the secretary of 
internal affairs, who shall have a general supervision 
over them, subject to such regulations and alter- 
ations as shall be provided by law ; and in addition 
to the annual reports now required to be made, said 
secretary may require special reports at any time 
upon any subject relating to the business of said 
companies from any officer or officers thereof. 

Sec. 12. The General Assembly shall enforce by 
appropriate legislation the provisions of this article. 

Article XVIII. 

FUTURE AMENDMENTS. 

Sec i. Any amendment or amendments to this 
Constitution may be proposed in the Senate or 
House of Representatives ; and if the same shall be 
agreed to by a majority of the members elected to 
each house, such proposed amendment or amend- 
ments shall be be entered on their journals with the 



158 ELEMENTS OF CIVII, GOVERNMENT. 

yeas and nays taken thereon, and the secretary of 
the Commonwealth shall cause the same to be pub- 
lished three months before the next general election, 
in at least two newspapers in every county in which 
such newspapers shall be published ; and if, in the 
General Assembly next afterwards chosen, such pro- 
posed amendment or amendments shall be agreed to 
by a majority of the members elected to each house, 
the secretary of the Commonwealth shall cause the 
same again to be published in the manner aforesaid ; 
and such proposed amendment or amendments shall 
be submitted to the qualified electors of the State in 
such manner and at such time, at least three months 
after being so agreed to by the two houses, as the 
General Assembly shall prescribe ; and, if such 
amendment or amendments shall be approved by a 
majority of those voting thereon, such amendment 
or amendments shall become a part of the Constitu- 
tion ; but no amendment or amendments shall be 
submitted oftener than once in five years. When 
two or more amendments shall be sudmitted they 
shall be voted upon separately. 

Adopted at Philadelphia, on the third day of No- 
vember, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight 
hundred and seventy-three. 

JOHN H. WALKER, 

Attest : D. L. Imbrik, President. 

Chief Clerk. 



APPENDIX. 

A Congress comprises all the sessions held in the 
two years of a representative's term. Usually two 
sessions are held. The long session begins on the 
first Monday in December of odd years and adjourns 
at its own pleasure. The short session begins on the 
first Monday in December of the even years and con- 
tinues until noon of the 4th of March following. 

" Original juristiction is the right to hear and de- 
termine a cause in the first instance. ' ' 

If a suit is begun in a certain court then that court 
has original jurisdiction. 

In cases in which a suit is taken from a lower to a 
higher court, the higher court has appellate jurisdic- 
tion. 

An ex post facto law is one which makes a crime 
punishable which was not so when committed. An 
increase of punishment would also be an ex post 
facto law with respect to crimes committed before it 
was passed. 

SALARIES OF GOVERNMENT OEFICIALS OF THE 
UNITED STATES. 

President of United States, $50,000. 
Vice-President of United States, $8,000. 
Cabinet officers, $8,000. 

Speaker of House of Representatives, $8,000. 
United States Senators, $5,000. 
Representatives in lower house, $5,000. 
Chief Justice, $10,500. 
Associate justices, $10,000. 

159 



160 ELEMENTS OF CIVII, GOVERNMENT. 

Ministers to Great Britain, France, Germany, Rus- 
sia, $17,500 each. 

Ministers to Austria, Brazil, China, Italy, Japan, 
Mexico, Spain, $12,000 each. 

Ministers to Central America, Chili, Peru, $10,000 
each. 

The President's private secretary, $3,250. 

Clerk to each Senator, $1,000. 

Sergeant-at-arms of the Senate, $4,320. 

Sergeant-at-arms of House of Representatives, 
$4,000. 

Librarian of Congress, $4,000. 

Governors of territories, $2,600. 

Circuit judges, $6,000. ' 

District judges, nearly all, $3,500; some get $4,000, 
and one judge in California, $5,000. 

Reporter of Supreme Court, $5,700. 

Clerk of Supreme Court, $6,000. 

Each of the five judges of the Court of Claims, 
$4,500. 

ACQUISITION OF TERRITORY. 

a. Louisiana purchase, made in 1803 by the Mon- 
roe treaty and for which we paid to France the sum 
of $15,000,000. The total cost, however, was $27,- 
267,621.98, equal to three and three fifth cents per 
acre. The purchase contained 1,182,752 square miles. 

b. The Florida purchase, made in 1819, by treaty 
between the United States and Spain, secured 59,268 
square miles,* at a total cost of $6,489,768, or seven- 
teen and one tenth cents per acre. 

c. The Mexican cession was confirmed to the 
United States by the treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo 
in 1848, by which the territory now comprising Cali- 
fornia, Nevada, Utah, the greater part of Arizona, 
and New Mexico, and a part of Colorado, with a 



APPENDIX. l6l 

total area of 522,568 square miles, was transferred to 
the United States, at a cost of $18,000,000, or five 
and one fourth cents per acre. 

d. By the Gadsden purchase in 1853 the Mesilla 
valley was acquired from Mexico at a cost of $10,- 
000,000. It comprises 45,535 square miles, and cost 
more per acre than any other purchase made by the 
United States — thirty-four and three tenths cents per 
acre being paid. 

e. Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867 by 
the Seward treaty, This area covers 577,390 square 
miles, and cost $7,200,000, or one and nineteen 
twentieths cents per acre. 

JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 

The judicial department of the United States con- 
sists of: 

a. One Supreme Court which is always held at 
Washington. 

b. Nine circuit courts comprised as follows : 

(1) Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, 
Rhode Island. 

(2) Vermont, Connecticut, New York. 

(3) New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware. 

(4) Maryland, West Virginia, North Carolina, 
South Carolina. 

(5) Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louis- 
iana, Texas. 

(6) Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Tennessee. 

(7) Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin. 

(8) Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, 
Nebraska, Colorado. 

(9) California, Oregon, Nevada. 

c. Sixty-four district courts as follows : 

(1) Three each in Alabama, New York, Texas. 

(2) Two each in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, 



162 ELEMENTS OP CIVIIy GOVERNMENT. 

Illinois, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North 
Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, 
Wisconsin. 

(3) One each in all other States. 

Posse Comitatus — Literally, to have the power of 
the county. People called to the assistance of the 
sheriff whenever he is resisted, and unable to ex- 
ecute the orders of court, or to suppress riot or law- 
lessness within the territory over which he has 
jurisdiction. 

Veto — When the Governor or President refuses to 
sign a bill that has passed both branches of the 
legislative body he is said to veto it. It cannot then 
become a law unless passed again by a two thirds 
majority of each house. He usually sends a mes- 
sage to the house where it originated stating his 
reasons for refusal to sign. 



